The Greater Evil I : Path of Ruin
by Guillaume HJ
Summary: Shortly after the events of the second movie, Jessie and James finally suceed at defeating Ash and Misty. As Brock gather their friends for a rescue, a new enemy begin to appear in the shadow, and not all is as it seems within Team Rocket...
1. Part 1 : Dark Beginnings

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Part 1 : Dark Beginnings

Chapter 1 : A Mountain in the Sea

The morning sun slowly rose in the skies above the snow-capped giant men called mount Kaerlan. The golden disc was shone in the sky, illuminating the world with its fiery ray. Around the mountain, birds flew, bathing in the light of the day, hunting for the bugs that would be their preys, in the eternal law of nature: eat, or be eaten. The bugs, of course, were not about to go down without a fight: most of them were in fact already hiding, while still seeking their own food, for there was no use in avoiding the hungry predators if they instead felt to their own hunger.

A few pidgeys were on the path that went trough the forests on the slopes of the giant, toward its snow-capped heights, eating a few acorns on the ground. Of all the birds of the forest, they alone would eat the acorns - and, unsurprisingly, the pidgey were by far the most numerous creatures of the forest.

The leader of the small tribe watched his fellow pidgeys eating, hoping that no one would disturb them. There had been an abnormal number of humans in the mountain in the last few days, and he certainly hoped that no more of them would arrive.

His hopes failed him, however. Just as he was about to pick an acorn to eat, a pair of humans arrived on the trail, apparently intent on climbing the mountain. When he saw the pidgeys, one of them moved his hand toward his belt - were a few pokeballs rested - but then moved it back with a sigh when he realized they were simple pidgeys. No doubt he was another fool who had heard of all the rare pokemon of the mountain, and who wanted to see it for himself.

The human who had almost tried to capture them seemed to be a male, but a young one. The second one seemed to be a young female of the species. The male carried a yellow beast on his shoulder - a pikachu, in the language of man, but in the language of pidgey, it was "sun-colored thing that summon the wrath of heaven". The female carried instead an egg-like creature, a Togepi, or, as a pidgey would have said, "Brother who is not fully born." The leader knew of these words because he had spied on humans, and had managed to find the human terms for most of the concept that the pidgey knew. With a shrill cry, he ordered his tribe to take flight.

_________________________________________________________________

The young man walked on the path, sighing again as the pidgey he had for one moment thought were rare pokemon took flight. Pidgey. One of the most common kind of pokemon. _What was Nurse Joy thinking about when she said there were rare pokemon here? I think she must have gone nuts or some such…maybe they're higher in the mountain…_he thought, cursing the idea of a pokemon-hunting trip in the mountain. 

He removed his red-and-white official pokemon league cap for a short while, then put it back on. Truth to admit, the trip was worth it for the scenery alone. The forest around them was magnificent, untouched by the hand of man for nearly half a century, since the last lumber mill had closed down. And he had seen a few pictures taken from up in the mountain, and they too were truly magnificent. But it would be a long while before they reached the summit, and he was already beginning to feel his legs weakening.

His blue vest seemed to weigh a thousand pound, and for a moment he thought about removing it, leaving him only with his black tee shirt, but he dropped the idea, sure that his companion would take advantage of it to laugh at him, as she always did.

She was always laughing at him, yes, but for some odd reason even if he had the chance to replace her with a nicer companion, he would not. In some way, he had grown used to her jokes, and he was sure that if she went away he would miss her too much. Besides which, sometime she could be really nice, and then he would never consider going without her. She was his best friend, and that was it. He had other friends - Richie, who, like him, dreamed of becoming a pokemon master, Todd, the photograph, Brock, who wanted to become a breeder, and Tracey, the pokemon observer, who had decided not to attempt climbing the mountain. _But she's been my friend for much longer…and she's been a far better friend than any of them. Yes, Misty is definitely my best friend…_

"Ash, aren't you getting tired? Maybe we should stop." She suddenly asked, breaking his line of thought. Her voice sounded tired from too much walking.

"Mwaaaa…yes…I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stop…" He answered, hoping she was not simply trying to trap him.

"This place looks like a good place to rest…why don't we stop for a while?" she asked, pointing to a nearby grove.

"Why not?" he answered, grinning. Apparently she was really tired.

"I wouldn't want to get the MIGHTY Ash Ketshum tired…"…Or maybe not…

He did not even bother to answer. The peaceful beauty of the place soothed him, and he just didn't want to start a fight in such a beautiful place.

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Misty winced inwardly as she let the comment out of her mouth. Once again, she had tried to hurt him without even realizing what she was doing…Most of what she said wasn't true…she just wasn't able to resist the lure of poking fun at her friend…sometime she spoke in anger, but sometime, she poked fun at him for no reason that she could understand…

__

If I make so much fun of him, I must hate him…but if I hate him, why do I keep following him around? Not because of a bike, that's for sure…why, then? Because he's a friend? But if he's a friend, why do I keep making fun of him? She reflected. Of course, Ash and her had started on a wrong foot, but still…

She looked at the sun above the clearing in which they were resting. Ash was sitting in the middle of the clearing, apparently lost in thought, as odd as it seemed for him.

The sun was already high in the sky. She rapidly looked at her watch, and saw that they noon was an hour gone. From Ash came a low sound that reminded her it was time to eat. Apparently, it had also reminded Ash, because when she turned back to look at him he had stopped thinking and was rummaging trough his bag for something to eat. 

She opened her own bag, quickly gathering some food. She gave some of the food to Togepi, her egg-like pokemon, and watched as Ash did the same with Pikachu, the yellow electric mouse. She then picked the ham sandwich she had made for herself before leaving Lemonopolis far below and started eating, noticing Ash doing the same.

She quickly finished the sandwich and sighed contently. She had not realized how hungry she was before eating, but now she definitely felt much better. Ash had not yet finished, but he was almost done, and Misty had to work very hard to prevent herself from making a nasty comment about it. _I'm going to be as nice as I can to him…he doesn't deserve what I give him all the time…_

Finally, Ash was done eating, and they left the small clearing, heading back toward the path, both of them having realized that they would not reach the summit for a while, and that they would have to spend the night in the forest, something which Misty did not like at all, considering how many bugs there were in the forest. She hoped to find an old building somewhere where they could rest, but considering how long it had been since the last human had set foot in the forest.

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The two young adults watched the screen of the videophone. A man in a red suit stood looking at them, his eyes hard and his face promising suffering for those who failed the man. The young man had blue hair, and wore a white shirt with a large red R on it, and white pants. The young woman wore similar clothes, but she had strange red hair.

"Jessie, James. I've been informed by my spies that the two kids who keep foiling your plans are climbing up Mount Kaerlan…you will see to capturing them, and you will see that they do not interfere with my plans there…"

The young man nodded, knowing there were no other answers, followed half a second later by the woman. He turned to look at her, surprised. He had thought she would try to fight a little; giving in like that wasn't her usual behavior…

"I even prepared a plan for you to capture them…" their boss said trough the videophone, before proceeding to explain in detail what his plan was.

______________________________________________

The young woman knelt in front of the altar, her eyes looking at the floor and not at the man in front of her. From the walls, great white drapes with red lotus on them. She knew the man in front of her wore a cloak similar to those drapes - white with a single red lotus in the middle. She also knew that looking at him during the ceremony meant death, and an atrocious and painful death.

"And do you swear to uphold our laws, and to fight to show the true path to the unbelievers?"

"I do." She answered, having long ago decided on following the path she now was on. Her long brown hair were falling to both side of her head as the man picked a cloak similar to his own and put it around her shoulder.

"Then, await in shadow, and be ready to serve the cause." The man said, and then vanished trough a door, leaving her free to go. She quickly removed the cloak, put it in her bundle, and headed back toward her home.

_______________________________________________

The two of them were seated in a house far from most roads. One had gray hair and beard; the other was a woman with jet-black hair. They both had the same small reddish-brown eyes, however.

"You sensed it too?" The man asked.

"Yes father. The second sign have come to pass…the time is soon. We must find the nine before the seeker do…and make sure they cannot harm our master." She nodded.

Syraelle looked at her father, a mix of disgust and ambition in her mind. She had no use for her father, no use for his senseless plans. When their master would seize the power that was rightfully his, she would be high priestess, not him.

He, on the other hand, would be noticeably dead. She smiled at the thought.

"Something funny?" He asked.

"No…nothing at all." She answered.

________________________________________________

"Be careful Damian." The red-clothed man said to the teenager as he walked away.

"Of course. Don't worry, I'll come back whole…as I always do!" he answered, grinning at his father. 

He had long jet-black hair, like his father, and aqua eyes, like his mother and his sister. His sister…it had been a long time since he had last seen her and he sometime wondered what had happened to the young woman. But there was no use worrying about that, and he started thinking of the newest mission his father had given him. 

Sometime working for his father was tiresome, especially because he disliked some of the mission he was ordered to fulfill, but he just wouldn't quit. His father was one of the few in the world who accepted him, and did not treat him as something lower than dirt. 

"Hey! Wait!" he heard a woman voice speaking behind him. 

He turned to face the owner of the voice. She was about his age, with long golden hair and sky-blue eyes. She also wore the black business suit with small red R over the heart that was the distinctive mark of the highest-ranking members of Team Rocket. She smiled at him; which was something rare.

"The boss ordered me to go with you…" she said. "Said something about this being your first major mission, and that maybe you'd need some backup…"

Damian smiled. He had expected his father to do that, and was actually pleased not to be alone on the mission. He just hoped she would not make fun of him, as nearly everyone did.

"My name's Elayne…Elayne Loreana…What's yours?"

"Damian Wat…" _No…not that name. He's my family now…_"Damian Scarpa."

"Scarpa? You're the boss's son?"

"Yes."

_______________________________________________

"Pokeball, go!" the young man shouted as he threw the small object in the air toward the strange looking hedgehog-like beast.

The pokeball flew trough the air and easily captured the pokemon. Gary Oak heaved a sigh of relief. He hadn't been sure if he would manage to catch the strange creature. If others had been around, he would not have sighed - he could not let his weakness show, and would have found someone to make fun at to draw attention away from him. But alone - he had asked his cheerleaders to stay back because with a group of them trailing behind him, catching pokemon was hard - he had no way to draw his own attention away from himself.

"I wonder what's that creature…maybe it's something good…" he whispered, looking at the pokeball. Another thing that was not really known was that although he had caught lots of pokemon, most of them were weak, low level ones. Of all his pokemon, only his Arcanine, Eevee and Nidoking were high level pokemon. Of course, between the two of them, his Arcanine and Nidoking were strong enough to hide the weakness, most of the time.

With a weary sigh, he walked back to the edge of the forest, trying to locate a few pokemon to catch, but finding none.

His cheerleaders were waiting for him at the edge of the forest. His father had hired them to cheer him up, to try to help him on his quest, but it just did not work that way. For no reason, Gary thought about Ash. Truth to be told, Gary was rather jealous of Ash. While Gary had to pay to get a few travelling companions - rather empty headed ones at that, Ash seemed to have no problem making friends. Even Gary had been his friend once, but he had broken the friendship when the two of them had started their pokemon journey, by his attitude. And while Ash seemed no better at training and catching pokemon, he seemed to have something that Gary did not have: his Charizard set aside, all of Ash's pokemon were absolutely devoted to the young man, and would not betray him.

Chapter 2 : Restlessness

The sun was now well past it's highest point in its eternal travel trough the skies, and in fact was quite rapidly coming toward the point where it would vanish for the night, darkening the skies. Misty looked at the glowing ball of fire in worry. They would have to find a place to rest soon, else sleep outside, and the air was getting chilly. But of course, in a forest untouched by the hand of man for over fifty years, finding such a place would prove a challenge.

Then she saw it. The building looked like an abandoned lumber mill - at least from the stack of huge tree trunk nearby, she could guess it was that. The door was half-open, and some of the windows were broken, but still it ought to be a better place to rest than outside in the cold air.

"Hey, Ash! Why don't we stop here for the night? That way we'll sleep better than outside, and we'll be able to go faster tomorrow…" she said, smiling.

"Well…maybe it's haunted? I don't want to sleep in a haunted house…" Ash idiotically replied. Of course, after his experience in the Pokemon Tower of Lavender town, Misty could not really blame him for being afraid of haunted places, but really…

Before the young man could even dodge, a mallet struck him on the head, sending him to the ground. He looked at her, and, surprisingly, grinned.

"I take it you didn't like my answer?" he said, and she realized he had only been kidding when he had talked about haunted houses. Sometime he was very surprising…maybe he was more intelligent than she gave him credit for, but she would die before admitting that.

"Well, are you coming?" he asked, then headed toward the abandoned building, although Misty could see that he was none too sure about going inside.

She followed him, and she was sure she wanted to go inside. The mill was certainly not haunted, whatever Ash might say and…

"BWAAAAHHHHH!"

The sound made her jump in panic - until she realized it was Ash who was trying to scare her. Without even thinking, she drew her mallet and struck, sending the young man down on the floor.

"I suppose you didn't like that one either…" he said under his breath, but she managed to hear.

The mill was dark, of course, but fortunately, she had picked up a flashlight before leaving, just in case they had to explore caves or the like on the trip. She opened it and they explored the ruined building for a while, looking for a place that would not be open to the wind, and that would be large enough for them to rest. They finally found one, deep inside the mill, and settled for the night. 

She soon moved to an adjacent room to get in her pajama, and as she did she tought about the events of the day. Nothing much had happened, of course, but still, it was an habit she had to think back on what the day had offered, and then put it behind her, and concentrate on the next day.

Maybe it was because she was lost in thought that she didn't heard the sound of the floor weakening. Or maybe the sound was not loud enough to be heard by anyone but a few Rattata. But the floor was weakening, and soon it gave way under her, and she found herself falling trough the floor, toward the ground below.

As she felt she screamed, and she hoped she would land somewhere safe.

___________________________________

The wind blew by the small seaport as the woman looked at the young man climbing inside the ship. She understood how he felt, yet he was by far the best of her helpers, and loosing him would hinder her work for a while.

"Are you sure about this Brock?" she asked, trying once again to convince him to stay on the island with her and her research crew.

"Yes…I've been away from home for too long. I've got to go back to them…It's not that I don't trust my father, but still…"

"I see what you mean…well, goodbye! I hope you come back soon!" Ivy said as she waved goodbye at the young breeder-in-training.

The ship slowly left the pier, and she looked as the young man waved back. Maybe one day he would come back to help her, but she doubted it. He was at an age where he had to keep moving, especially since he had been forced to stay at his home for a long while. She also doubted he would stay at home for a long time.

___________________________________

Ash heard Misty's scream, and raced toward the door to the small room where his friend had been, but once he reached the door, he hesitated, unsure of what Misty would say if he opened the door and found her busy changing clothes, having screamed only for something as minor as a bug. He thought for a moment, then shouted her name.

When he got no answer, he opened the door, and nearly fell trough the same hole where he could guess Misty had already fallen. He looked around the hole for a short while, then tried to look down it, but it was too dark, and he couldn't see what was below. Suddenly, the whole mill seemed scarier to Ash, as a feeling of dread overtook him. Something bad was about to happen, something terrible. He knew it, yet could not do a thing about it. He called out her name a few time, but she did not answer. Fearing that she might have knocked herself out - or worst - he went down in the lower parts of the mill to find her. However, before that he picked up one of his pokeballs, and threw it out, revealing his Charizard.

For a brief moment, Ash was afraid Charizard had decided to disobey him once again, but as he looked at the great fire lizard, he found himself starring not in the disdainful eyes of Charizard, or the hating eyes of Charmeleon, but in the trusting eyes of Charmander. Relieved, Ash walked down a stairway with the fire lizard lighting his way half a step behind.

__

I hope she's all right…I would never forgive myself if she was hurt…or worse…he tought, then walked down the stairway, turning toward his left, the path that seemed to lead to the place where Misty would logically have fallen - a place where she obviously should be.

But also, a place where she was not. Ash could see the hole over his head, and a quick flight up with Charizard confirmed that it was the right one, but Misty was nowhere to be seen. For a brief moment, Ash found himself wondering if perhaps a ghost had taken her away, then suddenly recovered from that moment of panic, and started trying to think of a way to find her.

_____________________________________

Damian sat down by the fire, and looked at the young woman in front of him. She was surprisingly young for an high-ranking Team Rocket member, but then, so was he. _Of course, I'm the boss's son, but still…_

He took a book from his backpack. The title was "Legends of the Dragon". He had picked the book from the extensive library in the Rocket headquarters, one of the most secret room of the place. Not only did it held rare, valuable books that belonged to Giovanni's secret collection, but it also held the Team Rocket archive, with many valuable documents. Only the highest ranking members were allowed in. 

He tried to read from the book, but for some odd reason, could not concentrate. He turned his attention back to the young woman.

"So, when did you join the team Elayne?"

"Two months ago…" she replied, shaking her head as if she expected him not to believe her- wich he did.

"Two months? And you're already high ranking?"

"Yeah…I think it had to do with the person who recruited me…when I entered your father's office with her…his reaction was odd…and when she told him I had just joined, he immediately made me one of his lieutenant…"

The strange story immediately got Damian's attention. 

"That woman…what did she looks like?"

"Not a Rocket…she had a gray dress, and long black hair…and she seemed…promise not to laugh…but she seemed to shine, somehow…" the girl told him, hesitating on a few points.

Damian thought about the meaning of what the girl had just said. She had been personally recruited by Enaira, at least it seemed that way. _I wonder what she's up to now…why did she have father recruit that girl, and why did she force him to give her such a ranking? I know what she wants with me, but what does she wants with her?_

__

"You could ask, you know…" It seemed as if the voice came from inside his mind, but he knew that in fact it came from much further away.

__

"Very well then, what is it that you are doing with her?" 

__

"Nothing that you should think of right now…concentrate on the mission your father gave you…"

"If you're not going to answer, why did you tell me to ask?"

"I did not ORDER you to ask. I only said you could…and I never said I would answer. Concentrate on that mission."

"All right, all right, I get the picture…"he said, and the voice was silent.

He stopped "talking" with the strange entity he knew as Enaira, and found that while he had been talking the girl had walked closer to him. She sat down besides him.

"Your father told me you had a hard time when you were young?" she asked, looking at him.

"He shouldn't have…I can take care of myself." Damian said harshly. He couldn't trust her. Wouldn't risk trusting anyone unless he had to. He had been betrayed by supposed "friends" too often.

"Don't you want to talk about it?" she asked, a questioning look on her face.

"Not really." He said, yet didn't mean it. He desperately wanted to open his heart to someone, but wouldn't dare, not trusting anyone, and not trusting himself either. If his sister had been there, it would have been different. He knew she could be trusted, he knew she would not betray him. But she wasn't there, she was somewhere else, he had no idea where. And he desperately needed to talk…

"All right…but if you ever need someone to talk to…I'll be there." She told him.

"Wait…I…I think I'd like to talk about it a little…" he said, a touch of sadness in his voice.

And then he found himself telling her everything, from the way his older sisters had made fun of him and his twin sister, how his twin had been the only one he could trust, the only one who understood him. How all the students at school had played all kinds of cruel tricks on him, bringing him to consider suicide a few time, and bringing him to leave his house at twelve, with a single pokemon and little money. How he had traveled from city to city, in search of a place where he would be accepted. How he had been found by the very same woman who had recently recruited Elayne. How Enaira had brought him to his father, and to a place where he was finally accepted - Team Rocket. He left a few things regarding Enaira out, things not even his father knew yet.

"And that's what he meant by hard time…he's one of the two or three person in the entire world I really trust…it's just…I can't bring myself to trust anyone else…"

"Yet you managed to tell me your story, and you've known me for, what, a few hours?"

"Yeah…I suppose that doesn't make much sense, but…I don't know. I feel…comfortable…telling you about it and I needed to talk to someone about the whole thing."

"Don't worry…I won't tell anyone about what you just said…and if you ever need to talk again…I'm always there."

"Thank you Elayne…good night…" he said as he entered his sleeping bag by the fire, and as she did the same. It was well past midnight, and about time for the two of the to get some sleep.

_____________________________________

Ash opened the door to the next room of the mill, having decided that a thorough room-by-room search was the best way to find Misty. Charizard, again, was half a step behind him, following closely, both to light the path for Ash and to protect his master, should anything attack. _What a change…a few months ago he wouldn't even obey me, now he'll do anything for me…Wisdom come to us all…someday it might even be your turn…_Ash smiled as he remembered that particular line from Misty, then his smile turned to a worried look. _Misty…I still have to find her…_

He looked at what he could see in the faint light of Charizard tail flame - apparently, a walkway high above something. There was no way he could see what was down below, short of having Charizard fly down there. For a moment Ash was tempted, but decided against it. If, as he was beginning to suspect, there was something in the mill that posed a threat to Misty, sending away Charizard was definitely not a good move. He instead decided to follow the walkway, and to look for a way down. 

As it was, he never got the chance, as the threat he had felt since Misty had vanished finally revealed itself. Two great projector on the roof came to life, removing the shadows from both end of the walkway, and revealing at each end a human figure. Ash did not even need to hear them - and definitely didn't want to hear their ridiculous poem - to recognize the two of them. Jessie and James - Team Rocket. He didn't need to hear the poem either to know these two were not here on friendly business.

"Charizard! Flamethrower attack!" he ordered, leaving the choice of wich of the two rocket was to be targeted to the fire dragon. Charizard aimed at Jessie, but just before he could release, a third light came to life, and an unmistakable voice spoke.

"I wouldn't do dat if I were ya…" Meowth said in his strange accent.

"Why not? I don't see what's to prevent me from doing it." Ash shot back, yet at the same time putting his hand on the fire dragon shoulder to stop him from releasing the attack.

"Dis. Only Jess can stop dat machine." He said, as he suddenly launced a machine beside him, causing a number of old logs to advance toward a huge saw - a huge saw that sliced the log in piece as they struck.

For a moment , Ash wondered what Meowth meant, then he saw, and his heart froze within his chest.

Misty was tied to one of the log advancing toward the saw.

Chapter 3 : Dark Menaces

Misty woke up slowly with a painful headache, unable to tell where she was. She tried to raise her hand to put it to her head, in hope of reducing the pain somehow, but the hand would not move. After wondering for a moment what it was she was feeling, she realized that she could not move her legs or her other arm either. It was then that she started feeling the pain in her arms, the pain of ropes digging in her flesh and it was then that she realized that she was tied. 

Suddenly, the darkness around her was filled with light, and as she turned her head to the left, she saw Team Rocket talking with Ash. Then, she heard a motor sound, and she felt herself starting to move toward something - she could not tell what, tough she could guess it was not pleasant from the look of horror that suddenly filled Ash's face.

The two villains looked at her, then at him. Jessie finally spoke.

"You see, it simple. You surrender and give us your pokemon, and we stop the machine. You don't, and she get sawed in two by that huge thing."

Hearing that, Misty realized what was about to happen. She struggled with the ropes that held her, but they were too tight, there would be no escape. Her life was in the hands of Ash now, and only him could save her. She tried to speak, to tell him something, but she realized she was gagged as well as tied, and could not speak at all. _Please Ash…I don't want to die like that…I want to live…_

Ash looked at her, then at Pikachu and Charizard, and she could see the sadness in his brown eyes. No matter which of the choice he picked, he would regret it, and he knew that. For an agonizing moment Ash stood silent, maybe unable to choose, or maybe afraid, or already regretting whichever decision he had made.

__

Ash…you've got to do it…save me Ash…please… she thought, panic welling through her, looking at him with pleading eyes. 

And finally, Ash made his choice. He held out a hand, and spoke.

"Charizard." He started, and Team Rocket, thinking he was about to order the Fire Dragon to attack, let out a yelp of surprise. Misty felt a few bitter tears rolling down his cheek. He had chosen his pokemon over her, and somehow she had thought he would. _I should have expected it…his pokemon first and foremost…_

________________________________

A few tears rolled down Ash cheek as he raised the hand that held Charizard's pokeball to his shoulder, and looked at the Fire Dragon.

"Return." He finished, and there was no mistaking the sadness in his voice, nor the tear rolling down his eyes as he slowly took each of his pokeballs and threw them at James, who picked them up and put them in a bag. _Pikachu's going to be a problem_ Misty realized, but she could not help, and anyway Pikachu simply ran to the rocket and jumped in the bag, tough its eyes were full of tears too

As Jessie stopped the machine, a pair of low-ranking rockets - like the ones onboard the SS Ann - appeared, and while one held Ash's, the other tied his arms. Misty looked at what was happening, when she felt something heavy hit her, and lost all consciousness.

__________________________________

No matter how hard he tried, Damian could not sleep. As soon as he tried to close his eyes, he saw Elayne's face appearing, and that was not something he wanted to think about - not the slightest. _I just can't trust her that much…Love takes trust, and I can't trust her enough for love..._ he told himself, looking at the stars above him, shining in the night sky. Yet even tough he kept repeating the same thing in his mind, it was no use. He knew he was in love, and he knew there was no way he could change that. A faint breeze rose, stirring the leaves of the trees around him, but he did not notice.

__

She's so beautiful…she probably love someone else anyway…There's no way she would fall in love with a nobody like me… he thought depressively. For being beautiful, it was true. She had a pale skin, and her long red-gold hair felt below her shoulder, loose. Her eyes were closed, but Damian knew they were sapphire-blue, and that they shone in the morning like two gems of great value.

The wind became stronger, and his own long black hair flew wildly around his head, but he did not care, like he did not care about mostly everything. He was lost in thought, and it would take a lot more than a strong breeze to make him think of something else.

Elayne. Even her name was beautiful. To him, it sounded like a sweet music, or maybe the song of the birds in the trees. The sky gradually became paler as he finally drifted off to sleep, overtaken by tiredness, and as he felt asleep, a smile illuminated his face. Because he knew that in the morning, an angel would be at his side. He had now wanted to fall in love, but now that he had, he knew there was no way for him to stop loving the young woman, that trying to accomplish that would be as useless as trying to move a mountain.

_________________________________

As far as the two in front of him, the man was named Jerek Almeigen, and he was a top-ranking Rocket bounty hunter. As far as they knew, for in fact he was quite far from that. While his costume was that of the rocket, his true loyalties were to another group, one that had very little to do with Team Rocket. The two in front of him, on the other hand…

They were rockets. Which meant they were greedy, gullible, and not overly brilliant. Of course, some members of team Rocket were quite intelligent, but, like most criminal groups, it attracted a sizeable number of the under-educated, and a fair group of the less intelligent part of the society. The two of them wore black clothes with a red R on the shirt. The man had short, green hair, and had an amused look on his face - why, Almeigen couldn't even begin to guess - and the woman, with an evil look on her face, had long golden hair divided in two ponytails. She wore two lavender triangle-shaped earrings, and looked at all of them with extreme boredom in her eyes.

"So how far have you gone in our scheme?" he asked them, hoping that for once they had succeeded.

"Before we answer that, I'd like to check out what we stand to gain again, just to be sure you didn't change it on us…" Butch stated, looking at him intently.

"If you pull off my plan, I get some money, and you get control of Team Rocket. That's what I'd call a good deal." Almeigen stated, amused by the single-mindedness of the man. "Now could you answer?"

"Yes…we sent the instructions to Jessie and James - pretending to be the boss, of course - and 

they should be taking care of the mission just now…which in turn should make the boss…" Cassidy started, looking at him.

"I know the plan Cassidy, thank you. I think that's enough talking for tonight…We'll meet again soon." He said, leaving the table in the seedy Pewter bar.

__________________________________

Misty woke up slowly once again, but this time there was, surprisingly, considering she remembered something heavy hitting her head, no headache. She tried to move her arms, and to her surprise they were free. She looked around herself for a moment, trying to find where she was. She was in a bed - a small, hard, uncomfortable bed, with rough wool covers, but still a bed, and there was a small table beside the bed.

She rose, and went at the door of what seemed to be her bedroom, opening it. It led to a small room, with a couch, a chair and a table. All of the furniture was rough and uncomfortable, but after being tied to a log, it seemed a major improvement. One of the wall of the room had a window - with iron bars preventing anyone from using it to leave - and outside, it was still night. The single source of light in the room was a lamp hanging from the floor, and in the light it provided, Misty could easily see Ash sitting on the couch, holding his head in what seemed like despair.

She made her way besides him, and put her arm on his shoulder, hoping to comfort him, but soon she felt the tears forming in her own eyes as well, as she realized the situation. They were alone, trapped inside a mill, with only Jessie and James to bring them food - which there was no guaranteed they would keep doing, and no one to know where they were. Their pokemon had been taken away from them - _even Togepi…I hope I'll get him back…_ and they had no way to escape.

Ash turned to face her, and it seemed as tough there was no life in his eyes, those eyes that had been filled with hope, sadness or joy, those eyes that were now empty. She held him close, and he wept on her shoulder, just as she did, letting her tears fall on his black tee shirt. They held each other for a long time, not talking, only trying to comfort each other, and to be a little less afraid.

Finally, Misty broke the silence in soft words.

"Ash…I'm sorry. I should have listed to you…it wasn't a good idea getting in the mill." She whispered. Ash looked at her for a long silent moment, then answered.

"No it wasn't. But there was no way you could tell…it's not your fault Misty." He said gently, still holding her close. For a moment Misty wondered if he saw her as more than a friend - something that frightened her, for some reason - then decided not even to think about it. 

______________________________

Jessie and James looked at each other for a moment after Ash and Misty were taken away, too stunned to speak. For once, they had succeeded - the two twerps who had plagued their lives for so long were under their control, and the pikachu they had sough to catch for so long was inside a bag.

Meowth was already dancing around in happiness, looking at the bag, while Jessie was weeping tears of joy, and while James simply had a goofy smile on his face. They looked at each other, and, for a moment, not a single one of them looked at the bag, and in that moment Pikachu took action.

He knew that he would not succeed by releasing the pokemon, that with all the rockets, who were there with Jessie and James, fighting was not an option, that the only way to save Ash was to flee, and to get some help.

He raced toward the door of the main area of the mill, hoping to get out, while behind him the three villains, unaware of his escape, still celebrated.

"We did it! WE DID IT JESSIE!" James said in bewilderment.

"Now we're going to get a raise! I'm going to get all those nice clothes…" Jessie added, apparently already dreaming.

"Yesss! Now dat we nabbed that Pikachu…" Meowth said, turning toward the bag - in which it was obvious that Pikachu was no longer. "The mouse iz running! Get him!" he shouted, turning around, looking for Pikachu.

Pikachu, meanwhile, had been far from inactive. He had crossed the door, and was now running toward what seemed like an exit to the mill. Behind him, he heard the telltale sound of pokemon being called out of pokeballs, and the hiss of an Arbok followed by shouts of "Victreebell! GET OFF MY HEAD!" from James. The two pokemon would have no problems catching up with him, because he was quite tired.

After what seemed to him like hours of running, but was probably no more than a few minutes, the little electric rodent found himself cornered at the edge of a cliff. As he looked ahead, a dark shadow passed between the earth and the moon - a shadow that was quite familiar, but that Pikachu somehow could not recognize.

Hoping that a miracle would save him, Pikachu threw himself off the cliff, screaming. Behind him, Jessie and James also screamed as the pokemon they had spent nearly two years hunting down plunged to his death far below.

Chapter 4 : Remorses

The little yellow beast plummeted down the cliff, as James watched in stricken horror, unable to believe the creature had been so willing to escape them as to throw itself down a cliff, choosing death rather than capture by them. It was…It was a depressing thought, somehow, to see that they caused such fear in their opponents. The young man had concluded a few months ago that he was not cut out for evil, that tricking others and stealing from them was not the path he wanted to follow.

Yet, after a lifetime spent working with team Rocket, he could see no other path to follow- neither for him nor for Jessie. The only time he had felt any freedom at all in the recent months was when he had been carried on the wind by that great white bird, Lugia. He had always loved to fly, and that was why he and Jessie had obtained their Meowth balloon, but now the balloon, with all that it stood for, seemed more like an anchor dragging him back to life has a rocket.

And away from the freedom he so desperately wanted.

"What…" Jessie voice was strained, as if she was fighting back to keep something inside. "What do we do now?" she finally asked.

"I don't know." He answered, fighting to keep his voice level, to prevent the – was it sadness? – from showing in it. "I really don't."

"We tell da twerps about dis!" the voice of the third member of the trio said from behind. "We'l.."

Before Meowth even got a chance to tell them what it was that would happen, what it was that they would gain from telling the twerps – the term they had used for so long was suddenly distateful, and James could only wonder why – a heavy metal fan struck the little creature over the head, causing him to fall to the ground. 

"We won't tell them. There's no need to torture them…" Jessie said firmly, putting the fan back in her uniform.

"Why not? They've…caused enough trouble for us…" Meowth said, his voice dazed, staring at nothing.

"We'll tell the boss, then we'll let him decide what to do…but no telling the twerps about this, unless the boss order us too, and if he do, we soften it as much as possible. Things will already be hard enough for them without that."

"Right." James nodded to Jessie's order. He could only agree – the twerps, even after all they had done to them, did not deserve that. And if they did, then what did they, Team Rocket, deserve for doing all of what they were doing, and had done, to the twerps?

Jessie took his hand, surprising him. It was not something that Jessie would do, taking his hand. She was much more likely to hit him over the head like she had just done with Meowth that do anything even remotely related to being nice to him. Yet…

Yet her eyes, most of the time hard as agate, seemed oddly different, and in that moment he knew that she had been just as badly shaken by what had just happened as he had been, his inner core shattered by the single crushing thought, that to Pikachu at least, death had been better than capture by them.

And by an equally oppressive weight, the weight of what they had done in the mill. Threatening to kill someone they knew- even if a rival – just to have their way, just to get pokemon. Because they knew that it was a soft spot, that Ash would die for his pokemon or his friends, and that he would almost certainly give up all his pokemon for the life of even one of his friend – let alone Misty, with whom he had been travelling for the past two years. 

Team Rocket had always dealt low blow, taking advantage of every weakness, but somehow, what they had just done seemed far wrong than anything they had tried before. Somehow, James felt as if an unwashable stain had just appeared on his soul, one that would never go away.

__

We kidnapped…and threatened to kill…just to get our way.

The single thought was so devastating that, far below, he did not notice the single dark shape carrying in it's claw an unconscious, tiny yellow rodent, floating on the wind toward unknown destinations.

_________________________________________________

The three of them were again gathered, celebrating to the success of their plot, to the fact that within a few days, they would have more powers than they had ever dreamed of. To the fact that in a few days, if their plans went well, Team Rocket would be theirs, and all the riches and powers that meant.

"I believe that we should implement phase two of our plan soon…" one of them, with long dark hair, and strangely shining blue eyes whispered. "They" he added, "have played their parts in our plan. Now one of us must go and make sure everything turn the way it is meant to turn…"

"I still do not understand." Butch objected. "Why are we makin such a fuss over kidnapping those twerps, and why do we want so badly to kill of those who come after them?" he said, a little too loudly – a man who was passing by on the otherwise deserted road that was so close to their new meeting point heard. He turned toward them, his eyes bulging , apparently intent on seeing who was plotting, then on running as far away as he could, possibly to the nearest police station. And then, to brag to his friend about how he had helped the police catch dangerous criminals.

Of course, it was a chance he would never get. Cooly, with almost clinically precise gesture, Jerek Almeigen drew his pistol from its holsters, and fired a single shot.

The man felt to the ground, an expression of stunned horror on his face, and with a blood-red star-shape in his forehead, with an hole in the middle.

"Make sure no one find the body." He ordered the other two, knowing they would not question his orders – and would not go against them while he was away making sure the next part of his plan succeeded. "And keep in mind what happened here…" he added, his voice chilly. "If you ever are tempted to betray me. By staying, you stand to gain much. By leaving, you will loose all. Which do you prefer?"

The two of them looked at him, and recoiled slightly when he turned his gaze upon them.

"Well. I see those remains are still there…What are you waiting for?" he asked, throwing frosty glances at the two of them. They immediately rose and headed as fast as they could toward the body – which was very fast, as they both believed that the pistol that had just taken away a life would soon be eager to take another – from them.

As they walked away, carrying the body, Almeigen silently watched the sky. They had their plans, and their aims. He had his, and they were much different, but the two of them would serve perfectly to fulfill one of the necessary steps of his victory. 

Bringing down Team Rocket.

With all their undercover contacts, the team would have early warning as to an attack by his masters, and they would have the weaponry to fight back. And when war would come, it was obvious that Giovanni would side with the Indigo league, and not his masters.

But it wouldn't matter. Giovanni would die, so would the fools who would fight for his place. Team Rocket would fall, and die.

And the blood of their death would water a new flower of death to grow over the world, a flower of blood and power, a flower of belief and faith, a flower that had risen so often already, a flower that he had no doubt would reappear until final victory was reached, and the unbelievers found the true path.

The Flower of Blood.

The Crimson Lotus. And he, Jer…no, that was not his true name, but after so often calling himself Jerek, he had almost forgotten. He, Ethan Starkhad, would gain glory such as few men had ever known.

_________________________________________

The ground rushed down to meet him, and to the little beat it seemed as if the fall took forever. He could not have been wrong. He could not afford to be wrong, for the sake of all that he held dear. The ground came closer still, now pikachu could distinguish the blades of grass seemingly waiting to impale him.

And then, the fall stopped, as he felt a number of sharp claws sink in his flesh. A great shadow suddenly blocked the moon from him, and, afraid that he had been taken by something that would eat him, something that would destroy him, he blacked out.

_________________________________________

The bright starry sky was reflected in the ocean, creating an infinite field of sparkling diamonds all around the SS. Queen of Orange. From his well-furnished room on the top level of the ship, Brock watched intently the sea below and the sky above, reflecting on the choices he had made regarding his life in the last few days - first and foremost, the choice to leave Valencia island to return to his hometown of Pewter.

__

I've been away for too long…they'll need me he thought, remembering his family. His father…he was not too sure his father could handle everything he had to do, that he could take care of all of Brock's brothers and sisters at once. Brock had barely managed, himself - and Flint did not have the experience his son had in that domain.

Slightly ahead, the docks of the city of Pallet came into view, and Brock suddenly found himself looking at a familiar figure walking on a dock. Ash's mother, but she was not alone. She was walking with a strange man wearing a long cloak. In fact, by the way they were behaving, they looked like lovers. The general shape of the man seemed somehow familiar to Brock, but he could not tell why. As the ship came closer, the man left, and as the two of them traded one last kiss, Brock could be sure they were, in fact, lovers. _So, Ash's mom have a lover, does she? Well…guess she's luckier than I am…_ he reflected.

As soon as the ship finished docking, Brock got out - to be welcomed, as he expected, by Ash's mother, who ran toward him as soon as she saw him.

_________________________________________

The two thick green snake-likes protuberance darted out of the Ivysaur's back and wrapped themselves around the little pikachu.

__

That's almost too easy… the trainer of the little beasts reflected as he let his reflexes take over, and gave the order to strike.

"SPARKY! THUNDERBOLT THROUGH THOSE VINES!" Richie Cotter yelled to his pikachu.

Obediently, the little electric mouse gathered energy from all around him, redirecting it in two astounding bolts of energy that struck through the vine, following them to the grass creature at the other end of them. The Ivysaur looked stunned for a moment, then its eyes closed down, and it felt to the side, its vine letting Sparky go. The little mouse raced to his trainer, and jumped in his arm.

"Fine job Sparky! Told you it was going to work."

"The battle's not over! You still have to face this!" the opposing trainer yelled, drawing a pokeball from his belt, and sending it out, releasing the massive bulk of a huge Venusaur. 

Richie let himself smile. That would be just as easy. He picked one of his own pokeball, knowing very well that type advantage alone would, in this case, be enough to ensure his victory.

"ZIPPO! I choose you!" he yelled, throwing the red-and-white ball in the field, then catching it as it returned, empty, to his hand, and as the red-and-golden shape of his Charmeleon appeared on the field. He could still remember that day when Zippo, his Charmander, had evolved shortly after he and Ash had met each other in the pokemon league competitions, nearly over a year before.

"Charmeleon! Flamethrower!"

"Venusaur! Earthquake!" the other trainer ordered, and Richie felt panick taking him. The earthquake would be devastating to Zippo, probably sealing the issue of the match. The other trainer wore a smug smile on his lips.

But something else happened. Just as the earthquake was about to strike, even as Richie felt the first tremor under him, Zippo started to glow. His body grew, and changed shape as well. His neck became longer, and two horns appeared on the top of his head. Two great bat-like wings burst out of his back. Then, the light subsided, and where Zippo had once stood as a charmeleon, there was nothing. Instead, a few feet above ground, a new Zippo, now a Charizard, flew over the Venusaur, impervious to the effects of the ground attack.

"Zippo! Use your wing attack!" Richie yelled.

Within moments, Zippo was beating the Venusaur with his wings, and the beast seemed to weaken. A few seconds later, it was all over.

"Guess you win…" the trainer muttered, looking at Richie with undisguised hatred, then left without another word. Richie smiled as he returned to his sleeping bag in the forest clearing. He had no idea why the trainer had awakened him in the middle of the night, but he knew one thing, now he was going back to sleep. Tomorrow, he would have to reach Viridian, and that would take a long time.

_________________________________________

Pikachu slowly woke up again, looking all around him, wondering where he was. Wind rushed at him, and below him, waves crashed on unknown shores. The lingering pain in his back indicated that he was still held by whatever had caught him earlier was still holding him.

__

At least it hasn't eaten me yet The little mouse reflected, watching the shadow of the great winged beast. Is last run-in with a pidgeot had been less than pleasant, and he was really scared of the great bird now carrying him. But there was nothing he could do about it.

"Are you all right?" the bird asked, in the langauge of pokemon of course - thus, no humans would have understood, but any pokemon would have no problem doing so.

The voice sounded familiar, and pikachu was sure he had heard it somehwere before…And then it clicked. He remembered that day before they had first gone in the orange islands, when Ash had left his newly evolved pidgeot behind to guard a tribe of pidgey.

"Celes? Is that you?" He asked of the female pidgeot carrying him.

"It sure tooks you a long time to recognize me old friend. But of course, after nearly getting yourself killed and fainting in the process…I can't blame you…"

"Not to mention I had some bad experiences with Pidgeots recently." Pikachu - or, as he was known to other pokemon, Raiken - said.

"Really? So, how have Ash - and the others - been?" she asked, a wistful note in her voice.

"The others? Well, Deathwing finally decided to obey Ash and…" His face became a mixed expression of horror and determination as he remembered the events at the mill that had lead him to jump off that cliff. "Ash. Team Rocket got him. We have to find help." He suddenly said, and Celes nodded.

"Where should we go?" she asked, her voice suddenly hard as steel.

"I don't know…Pallet, I think. You remember his hometown?" he asked suddenly.

"I do…but before we go there, I think I'll let you climb on my back…It should be more comfortable for you, and less tiring for me." 

Raiken nodded, and Celes landed on a nearby beach.

Chapter 5 : Tense Winds

The fearow flew in the wind, approaching Leman Island and the mill. Its great wings carried it on the ascending air currents, allowing it to move effortlessly. The mill was now very close...It admired the view down, the splendid sunrise over the sea east of the island.

The great beast landed on a ledge near the mill, and looked around for a moment, to make sure he was alone. Then it shimmered, and where it had stood now was a human. Ethan Starkhad brushed some dust off the sleeve of his dark blue business suit, and rearranged his tie. Only the small red R on the hearth pocket of his suit marked him as a - supposed - member of Team Rocket, though the face of Jerek Almeigen was known and feared among all rocket.

He slowly walked toward the mill, smirking. Jessie and James were idiots, and he would have no problems manipulating them in doing what he wanted. After all, everyone knew that Almeigen was the boss's favorite bounty hunter, and that he often carried orders as well. Why would they suspect he was carrying false orders now? After all, Butch and Cassidy had done their job well - he had seen to that - and the two of them were already utterly convinced that the current plan was a plan of the boss. Why would they think otherwise?

He knocked on the door, careful to keep the sleeve of his suit from contact with the dusty, rusty iron. The door slowly creaked open, revealing the red-haired harrigan - Jessie - and the blue-haired cross-dresser - James - as well as their idiotic talking cat, Meowth. The little furball liked to claim he had once been the "top cat" - personal cat of Giovanni, and while Almeigen had not certitude on the topic, he knew that if he had been in Giovanni's place, he would have rid himself of the idiotic creature for that much more loyal, and much deadlier persian he liked. The idiotic trio, as the rest of Team Rocket usually called them. Hopefully inept, far from evil enough, and simply untrustworthy, with a way to fail in tasks that even six-years-old kids would have - had, in fact - been successful at. 

"Sir! It's an honor!" Jessie said, bowing low - bowing any lower than that, she would have touched the floor, not to mention that she would probably have fallen to the ground AND given a very...interesting...sight to everyone behind her. Fortunately for her, James and Meowth were also too busy bowing and scrapping to notice, and Almeigen was on the wrong side to see anything - altough he strongly suspected Jessie would have thought he was on the good side.

"Rise, fools. The boss sent me to take charge here. I came ahead, and I have a few troopers underway. As soon as they get there, you three'll be leaving - I'm sure the boss will find some other mission for you" 

"What? But...This...our...the boss..." James stammered.

"Was there a part of what I said you didn't understand James? Maybe I went too quickly for you..." Starkhad said, his voice sweet yet carrying a hint of steel in it.

"No sir. I understand sir. It'll be a pleasure to do as you say, sir."

"Very good. Dismissed, you three. I have things to deal with here.

The three fool quickly went off, gathered their thing, and a moment later were leaving at a very quick pace, racing away as fast as they could. Starkhad watched them, an half-smile on his lips.

__

Such idiots...it's a wonder they haven't been fired - or shot - already.

He smiled. His plan was working very well so far - soon, Team Rocket would be rent apart, and shattered. And with them gone, the path of the Crimson Lotus would have one less obstacle in. No one would oppose them - no one would oppose them, and live.

___________________________________

It had been five days. Five long days, five boring days since the two of them had been trapped inside the mill, since their freedom had been taken away from them. As well as their pokemon. Ash hung his head low, trying very hard not to think of Pikachu, Charizard, and all of his other pokemon - all those painful memories.

He suddenly heard a soft sound coming from behind him - the sound of someone weeping. Ash rose and went to see what had made Misty weep. As he looked at her, he could not find a single answer. She was just standing there, weeping. Tears ran down her cheeks, falling to her feet. This was not something Ash was used to. An angry misty, he had learned to deal with. A happy Misty, he knew how to deal with. But Misty weeping for no reason, he had no ideas how to deal with.

"Misty...What's wrong?" he asked, looking at her in the eyes.

She stared at him blankly, then suddenly, though there were no reasons to explain that sudden outburst, she threw her arms around him, put her head on his shoulder, and the weeping, which had seemed to calm down for a while intensified. 

He awkwardly put his own arms around her, trying to comfort her, wondering what exactly was wrong, if it was something that had to do with their being trapped, or perhaps with the disappearance of their pokemon, or maybe with the obscure guilt that she had seemed to carry with her ever since they had been captured.

"What if...what if we never get out Ash? Maybe no one will find us...Maybe we'll die in this room..." she whispered, her voice trembling, her whole body shaking as she wept.

"I'm sure we won't Mist...I mean, Tracey's going to help us, or something..." he said, trying very hard to make his voice sounds strong, though he could not help but wonder if Misty was right.

She moved her head, and wiped the last few tears out of her eyes with her hand, then stared at him through her aqua eyes, which seemed to be filled with fear still. Ash knew that his eyes probably held the same fear - the fear that he felt in every fiber of his body. What if she was right? What if they would live in the cell until the day they died?

Five days had seemed long in the cell, like forever. If they were to be there until the day they died...If they were to be there until they died, Ash could only hope for one thing. 

__

If we are to be trapped here...I hope we'll die quickly. I really hope so.

_____________________________________

Bowing one last time, Duplica left the stage of the Viridian park center, where she had managed to arrange things so that she could give a show while traveling. She sighed. Life on the road, giving her shows in whichever cities happened to let her have some room to do it, was not at all what she had dreamed it would be. From the few tales she had heard from Ash and other travelers, she thought it was afun way to live, that she would have many adventures.

And instead, it was something else entirely. Dull days passed on the roads. Blisters under her feets, and the aching pain of walking endlessly. The trouble finding shelter every night. The food, which lacked more often than not. Getting lost on a near-daily basis. Rain, and heat. Problem after problem, gathered together only to make traveling harder.

With a weary sigh she walked back to the pokemon center, were at least she could stay for that night with a roof over her head.

_____________________________________

The car braked suddenly in front of the Oak's lab in Pallet, and Gary jumped out, racing toward his grandfather's lab holding in hand one of his pokeballs, the one containing the new pokemon he had caught in the forest. With luck, his grandfather would be able to identify it and give him some information about its source. As far as Gary knew, the pokemon was completely new.

He raced toward the lab's door - and ran straight in a tall young man who was going the same way. He fell to the ground, and as he rose he looked at the person. He seemed vaguely familiar, and Gary was sure he had seen him before...It came back to him. Brock, one of Ash's many friends. The one who was obsessed with girls.

"What are you doing here?" Gary asked, just barely keeping himself from yelling.

"Just came back from Valencia island, and thought I'd ask your grandfather if he had news from Ash..." the young man answered calmly.

"Ash? That looser?" The lie was barely noticeable, in fact unnoticeable to anyone but Gary who knew it was a lie - that he did not really think that way of Ash. "Why would you want news of Ashy-boy?"

"Because he's my friend." Brock shrugged. "Besides which, he isn't that bad." He added.

"Of c..." 

Before he could finish what he was about to say, Gary was interrupted by a shrill scream, like that of a dying pokemon, coming from a way off.

"We got to find who - or what - that was." Brock told him, and Gary nodded. As much as he tried to appear hard on the outside, he could not let a pokemon to die in the wilderness if there was any way he could help it - any reasonably safe way to do so, anyway. He took a quick glance at the sky, at the rapidly falling ball of fire of the sun, and headed toward the lab.

"What are you doing?" Brock yelled at him. "We need to find that pokemon."

"Yeah, but the sun is going down so I thought we could use flashlight." Gary sneered.

"Oh, right..." Brock stumbled, realizing that he had misjudged the young man.

Gary entered the lab, quickly went to one of the drawer, and opened it, taking two of the flashlights which were inside, and headed back outside. His grandfather appeared in the doorway of the room, looking at him.

"Gary? What was that sound?" he asked.

"I don't know. I was going to go out and look for what happened." The young man replied quickly. Alone with his grandfather he could be himself, he didn't need to pretend to be harder than he was. Sometime, Gary wished he had not started acting that way toward others, that he could be himself around everyone, but it was much too late now.

"Wait a minute, I'll be coming too." His grandfather said, taking a flashlight out of the drawer from himself. He then looked curiously at Gary.

"Why did you take two flashlights Gary?"

"Well, that guy who travel with Ash - you know, Brock - is there, so..." Gary quickly explained, and then the two of them got out of the laboratory and joined Brock outside. 

"I'm almost sure the sound came from that patch of wood over there." Brock told them, pointing toward the patch of wood to the north, part of the terrain of the laboratory.

"Well, let's go instead of talking!" Gary told him, turning his flashlight on as his two companions did the same.


	2. Part 2 : Storms in Orange

1-2

Part 2 : Storms in Orange

Chapter 6 : A cry in the Night

Brock looked at every shadow on the ground, being sure to illuminate every spot of darkness with his powerful flashlight. Dimly, he heard Gary and professor Oak calling in the distance, but intent as he was on looking for the wounded - probably dying pokemon - he could not divert his attention to what they were saying.

He pushed a few branches out of the way, clearing his path, hoping he would reach the wounded creature in time. He had to save it, somehow. He caught a glimmer of movement in the bushes to his left, and as he looked he saw a rattata scurrying away - though a strange one, but he had no time for that at that point. He had to find the pokemon.

There was a low squeal from somewhere nearby, a sound unmistakable - that of a wounded pokemon. Brock hurriedly pushed branches aside, not bothering that some of the branches snapped back in place, whipping his side, and finally he reached the source of the squealing. A wounded pikachu, lying on the forest floor, by a pidgeot.

Then his eyes narrowed as a dreadful suspicion crept up his mind. A pikachu. Not just any pikachu, maybe...He frantically looked at the beast, searching for some telltale mark...

And found one - it was indeed Ash's pikachu. The old scars of that encounter with a flock of spearows and fearows, on their first day of traveling together, before Brock had even met them. "Gary! Professor! I found them!" he yelled, breaking the silence of the forest 

The two of them soon came crashing through the wood, reaching him from two direction but at almost the same time. Gary took a look at them, and his eyes widened.

"Are those two pokemon the two I think they are?" he asked.

"Yup. At least the pikachu is." Brock shortly answered.

"Well, show how much of a looser he..." Gary began, then interrupted himself. 

Professor Oak bent to look closely at the two bodies.

"That pidgeot is going to make it." He finally said. "It's only exhaustion, and some rest in a pokeball will be enough." He finally said, then hesitated. Brock felt cold fear grip his heart as he wondered what it was that the professor had not yet told them.

"The pikachu, however...we have to get him to pokemon center as soon as we can. Else, he's dead - he was too badly wounded, and then he suffer from the same form of exhaustion."

"A pokemon center? But..." Brock began, knowing the nearest one was in Viridian.

"I'll get us all there. I have a car, remember? And I can't pass an occasion to get Ashy boy to have a debt toward me..." Gary said. Brock glared at him, angry that the young man would think of petty rivalries at such a critical time.

All three of them raced toward the lab, Gary carrying the pidgeot and Brock the pikachu. As he took a brief look at the young man, Brock almost sensed some emotion coming from him, though he could not name it. Maybe it was jealousy, or cockiness. Or maybe it was something else. Brock shook himself out of it and started running again - he could not afford to let Pikachu die on him. He had to find out what had happened for the little electric pokemon to leave Ash's side.

They finally got to the car, and left, heading at full speed toward Viridian, and Brock could only hope they would get there in time.

__________________________

With a weary sigh, Richie pushed open the door of the pokemon center of Viridian, finally getting there. He had planned on arriving there early in the evening, instead it was nearing midning and curfew as the finally dropped on one of the seat, letting his bag fall besides him.

The local nurse approached him.

"Hello young man...you are out late aren't you?"

"Took me more time than I expected to reach Viridian." He shortly answered, feeling more than a little frustrated at how his fine plans for the day had been thrown out of the window by one lucky - or rather, unlucky - encounter with a bug catched had led to a prolonged battle between their pokemon. The fact that the trainer had gotten an early cheap shot with his Parasect's spore attack, putting poor Zippo out of action all at once, had not helped. "Could you please take care of my pokemon? One of them got spored by a parasect, and, well..." he added.

"Of course. I should have them ready for tomorrow morning. Why don't you get some sleep in the mean..."

She was interupted as the door of the center crashed open, leaving room for a frantic trio to enter, two of them carrying pokemon. Richie gave them a quick glance, went back to his pokeball which he was about to handle to Nurse Joy...

And then his head snaped back toward the three of them. He knew them - professor Oak, Brock, Ash's friend, and that other guy, Ash's rival or some such. And one of the pokemon they were carrying was a pikachu...

"Brock!" he yelled, heading toward them.

The slightly older young teem took a quickl look at him.

"Richie?" he said tentatively.

"Yup! Is that Ash's pikachu? What happened to Ash?" Richie asked, worried about his friend.

"Yes, and we don't know." Brock answered quickly, before putting the pokemon before nurse Joy.

"Oh my god! This pokmeon nead treatment - immediatly." The nurse said , gaping in horror at the wounded creature. She immediatly picked it up, and, putting it on a stretcher, pushed it to the backroom, Professor Oak just behind her.

Brock, Richie and the other young man soon were left alone in the main room, and they went to sit down in a circle to talk.

"You're Richie Cotter aren't you?" the other young man - Ash's rival - suddenly asked.

"Yep, That's me." Richie answered automaticaly.

"I saw you in the league games last year...you did pretty well. That looser Ash sure got beaten good." The young man said.

"Ash? A looser?" Richie asked confusedly. Even though Ash had lost to him, he still considered that the fight had not been a fair one, due to Team Rocket kidnapping Ash, leaving some of his best pokemon out of the fight.

"Yeah...I'm Gary Oak." The offender finally presented himself.

"Pleased to meet you." Richie answered, barely keeping his voice from being frosty.

Suddenly, one of the doors that lead to the dormitory of the pokemon center opened and a young woman stepped in. She was in her nightrobe and not at all un-atractive - though Gary seemed to notice it far more than Richie did.

"What's all the noise about?" she asked, then, as her eyes fell on Brock, recognition appeared. "Brock? Is that you?" she suddenly asked.

"Yeah...Duplica, is that it?" Brock answered, while Richie looked curiously at the two, wondering how they knew each other.

"Yup. Do you know how Ash is? I was thinking about him..." she asked.

"No...we found his pikachu wounded near Pallet earlier tonight, and the noise was us bringing him in."

She sat down close to them, and as she darted a look at Gary, Richie had to conceal a grimace. For reasons she couldn't fathom, it seemed that the young woman actually found the whiny, arrogant young trainer interesting.

_________________________

Ethan Starkhad grimaced as he tried to think up a backup way of letting the two young ones friends know what had happened. Originally, he had planned to let the young man's pikachu get away to spread the tale, but now, of course, seeing as the poor beast had preferred to jump from a cliff rather than face capture, there was no way to do that. The other pokemon just wouldn't do, so, he would have to arrange it so that Jessie and James made a slip in public.

Of course, chances were, knowing the two, that he wouldn't have to arrange a thing, but he would all the same. He would not let any randomness play in his plans this time, and as he rose from his seat to look at the moon through the window of the mill, he could only smile. They would play right in his trap, and Team Rocket would die.

The way would be free for the Crimson Lotus to reveal itself.

__________________________

Gary looked again at the superb young woman who had just taken a seat next to him. She was stunning in every sense of the word, and although she seemed to have caught the eye of Richie as well, she actually kept darting look at him - but he could not, would not believe that she would actually fall in love with him.

"I wonder what happened to get Pikachu in that bad a state." Richie asked.

"I don't know..." Brock replied. "What worries me more is to see Pikachu without Ash...I wonder what happened to HIM..."

"Bah...well...I...I mean...well...." Gary stuttered. He had been about to say "Who care about that looser?" but he could not - would not say that with the young woman around.

"Well, seeing as they were after Pikachu definitely and Ash probably, I can name a very suspect group off the top of my head..." Richie said, and Gary glared at him. He was the one who had to find the answer, to impress the girl. If only she could see how great he was..._Or rather, how great I'm not...I'm the pathetic looser, not Ash...she'd never fall for me..._ he thought with a weary inner sigh. He seemed so...unworthy...of her.

"Team Rocket" Brock nodded. "Obviously."

"You mean, those guys who actually got Ditto to do something right?" Duplica asked, looking at the two of them. "And also kidnapped him?"

"Yup, those." Brock nodded again, this time while looking at Duplica, which somehow gave Gary an unreasonable urge to punch him in the face.

"Oh, c'mon. Don't be such loosers - anyone would have reason to go after Ash..." he told them.

"I don't think so...I mean, it's not like people - aside from you Gary - tend to hate Ash..." whispered.

Gary winced as he heard the words, wishing he had kept his mouth shut.

Richie sighed. "Well, I think the rocket did it, but...We really can't do a thing about it for now..."

Brock nodded. "We should all get some sleep." He added.

"Well, first I think I'd like some more formal presentations." Duplica said, looking at him.

"Well, ok...Duplica, this is Richie Cotter, a pokemon trainer, and Gary Oak, another trainer. Richie, Gary, this is Duplica. She's out to become a mistress of Mimicron or some such..." Brock told them all.

"Mimicron?" Richie asked curiously.

"This." She whispered, disappearing for a moment behind a drape - to later reappear...

Or rather, to have a second Gary reappears in the room all of a sudden. Gary stared in shock at the...clone...of him that had just appeared, wondering how exactly she had done it.

Then, suddenly, the body became more feminine, turning from a perfect clone of himself into a girl wearing his clothes - Duplica.

"Now I think you know what Mimicron is." She said, winking at him. Gary felt his knees going weak, and had never been so thankful to be sitting.

Chapter 7 : Dark Tidings

With a weary sigh, Samuel Oak left the operation room of the Viridian pokemon center. All that he could do had been done, now it was time to wait - and see. Judging by the sky outside, it was already early morning, and Brock and Gary were sound asleep on the seats in the main hall - along with a young man - Ash's friend from the pokemon league, if he remembered correctly - and a young woman that seemed somehow familiar. 

Sighing again, he woke them up. 

"I think it's time to call Leman island - that's where Ash last was, as far as I know." He said. "Maybe someone will be able to help us?"  
_________________________ 

The sun rose slowly over Leman island, bathing the world in a eerie light. Sitting in the pokemon ceter, Tracey could not help but worry about Ash and Misty. They had said they would be gone for three day at most, and not it was already the morning of the fourth one. He started packing, deciding to go out and search for them a little. Near the desk, he heard Nurse Joy slowly powering up the equipment, yawning as she did so. 

Suddenly, the video-phone rang, and with another yawn, the nurse answered. 

"Hello miss, is Ash Ketchum perhaps near your pokemon center right now?" the voice of the person calling saidé  
"Ash Ketchum...Ash Ketchum...no, but I think that one of his friend his here." She turned toward Tracey, eyeing his travel bag.  
"Aren't you a friend of Ash Ketchum? I think I heard you mentioning him once or twice..." she asked.  
When he nodded, she moved away from the phone and motioned him forward. He went to the phone, wondering if he would learn anything about Ash's whereabout from the voice he had recognized as professor Oak's.  
"Oh, Tracey! I should have known you would be somewhere around! Do you happen to know where Ash is?" The professor asked.  
"No, and that worries me - a lot. He and Misty left for a three day trek in Mount Lemonade, but they haven't come back yet, and they left four days ago." Tracey answered quickly.  
"We might have a problem...We found his pikachu dying close to my lab last night..." The world-famous professor slowly said.  
"Pikachu would never leaves Ash...something is very wrong here..." Tracey replied, wondering whatever could have happened to split the two apart. 

Suddenly, there was a second man on the screen, a young man who seemed about Tracey age, with sun-darkened skin, very small eyes and brown pants, as well as a green vest covering a orange shirt. 

"Professor! Pikachu just woke up! Nurse Joy says he 's going to live!" he shouted at the professor.  
"Well, let's see what that little mouse can tell us." The professor replied, then turned back toward the screen. "I'll call back as soon as we find out more!" He told Tracey. 

_________________________

Brock and the professor entered the room, Richie, Duplica and Gary hot on their heels. Pikachu was on a sickbed, looking much better, though the wounds were still there, and he still seemed quite tired. 

"Feeling better pikachu?" Brock asked grinning at the little mouse.  
"Pi!" the little mouse nodded weakly.  
"Can you tell us why you're here - or where's Ash for that matter?" the professor asked.  
"Pi...ka" the little creature started, as the professor suddenly hit himself on the head with the palm of his hand.  
"All right, I should have thought that we wouldn't understand a thing." He admited.  
"Don't worry, I can deal with that." Duplica smiled. She took a pokeball from her belt and threw it to the ground. "DITO! I choose you!" she yelled. 

The lavender amoebia appeared, and looked at the scene for a short while. 

"Dito! Ask pikachu what happened to Ash." She ordered while Brock wondered what she was after. Of course, the Dito would be able to understand, but how would he pass that knowledge on to them? 

The two pokemon chatted for a moment, and again Brock wondered why it was that the two understood each other so well despite having such a limited language. After a while of chatting, the dito turned toward his mistress. Duplica quickly nodded. 

"Dito! Transform - human shape!"

  
The form of the amoeba seemed to blur for a moment, becoming indistinct, and then where a little lavender pokemon had stood barely a moment before stood instead a second Duplica, perfectly identical to the original one. Brock whistled as the new Duplica started to explain. 

"Raiken says it was Team Rocket, as we suspected. He also says that Ash and Misty are being held by them on an abandoned mill on Leman Island, and that he escaped, though it was hard." The young - pokemon? Woman? Brock was not quite sure how to put it - told them. Brock looked again in amazement at the two, unable to find even the smallest difference between them. 

Professor Oak seemed just as dumbfounded as he looked at them, apparently seeing something he had never thought he would, yet being forced to acknowledge it. 

"How did you do...that?" he finally asked. "I thought Dito could only take the shape of other pokemon - or maybe inanimate objects, in some rare cases..." he added, wonderingly.  
"I trained him a lot. Simple as that." She answered.  
"Well, now we know what happened..." Brock mused, wondering what they should do now.  
"I think we should try to find some help, and also ask Tracey to look around there for some information..." the professor told them, heading almost immediatly for the video phones..  
___________________ 

Tracey walked on the steep mountin trail, following what, as far as he could tell, was the exact trail Ash and Misty would have followed five days before. He had left at dawn, expecting to be back in the day. and now the sun was already low on the horizon. He was making a conscious effort to be stealthy, knowing that he would be of no use to Ash and Misty if he got captured too. The forest was silent, and not even the wind shook the brances of the trees. 

With the sun almost gone, he finally spotted a likely place for them to be held - what seemed to be an abandoned lumber mill, close to a small river, and with a cliff close by. The lumber mill seemed to be guarded by what he recognized as standard members of Team Rocket - black uniforms with a strange Hoshoan-looking hat. 

"So. That's where they are...Ash and Misty are certainly inside." He whispered to himself. 

He crept closer, to the building, still as silent as he could manage - and more beisde. As soon as he got close enough to see the features of the guards - at least in general details - he started observing carefully. To most others it would have been impossible to diferentiate the troopers, due to the uniform, the fact that they had the same general built and that their hair were hidden by their clothes, but to Tracey's eyes, eyes trained to find each and every small detail of a pokemon, each looked quite different. Whenever he saw another one, he quickly noted the major personal traits in his scrapbook, to be sure not to count the same rocket twice. After a while, he could estimate that there were about 12 or 15 rockets there, not including Jessie and James, whom he had not seen, but could easily assume were there, but including the black-cloaked stranged who seemed to be in charge. 

"This will be a lot tougher than we tought..." he whispered once he was safely away, knowing that instead of going up against the two official numbskull they were so used to defeat they would have to face over ten standard rocket trainer - trainer he had no doubts were at the very least each a match for Jessie and James - and the mysterious stranger in the black cloak.  
_______________________ 

By noon on the sixth day after Ash and Misty were captured, Brock, Gary, Richie and Duplica knew everything there was to know about the situation. They also knew that unless they managed to find a few allies, they would never see Ash and Misty again. They started planning almost immediatly, trying to find those who were most likely to help Ash and Misty out of the situation they had found themselves in. Of course, Misty's sisters volunteered to help as soon as they heard the news. As much as they claimed to be apart from their sister, they wouldn't let her down. They arrived soon, carrying with them the pokemon that Misty had left behind at Cerulean. 

Surprisingly, the next to join them was one Brock would never have expected to see joining them, one of the gym leader who had the least reason to help, along with Giovanni, of course. As she calmly teleported near them, Sabrina of course had to explain the why of her presence, as no one seemed to understand. 

"Gengar did not leave me a choice...It almost physically forced me to come here..." she explained, and even though he knew about her being different, Brock felt an incredibly strong itching to slowly edge away from her.  
"Gengar!?!?!?" He asked, wondering where she had obtained the pokemon.  
"Yes, Ash's Haunter evolved shortly after he gave it to me...giving away amount to the same thing as trading I guess..." she explained, her face serious, yet with a faint hint of a smile. 

Others arrived, including Todd, who, surprisingly enough, had a pokemon with him, despite saying time and time again that he would not capture pokemon. 

"Well, I was on a mission for Prof Oak, and the little thing decided to follow me around..." he explained shortly, seemingly amused by Brock's surprise at seeing him with a pokemon. "You can't really say I got myself a pokemon...it's more like, that pokemon got himself a trainer."  
"What kind is it?" Brock asked, puzzled even more by the explanation.  
"You'll see...all I'm saying right not is that it is very strong." He answered, smiling slightly. 

Besides him, professor Oak nodded vigorously. 

Erika was the last to join them, still unhappy about the destruction of her gym by team rocket a year and a half before. Even though it had been repaired, she had not forgiven them, and had nothing against helping Ash out.

Chapter 8 : A moment of Reflection

The liner SS Queen of Vermillion was an old ship, there was no doubt about it. Nowaday, people would rather use planes to cross between Kanto and the Orange islands, but when it had been built nearly fifty years before, planes were not yet the mean of transportation they had become in recent years. Yet, it was still a fine ship, and ensured the transport between Vermillion and Valencia, with stops in Pallet and Leman island, on a regular basis. It had left Pallet toward Leman three days ago, and was unusually full for a ship.

Looking at the sea below him as he stood, hands on the railing, at the very prow of the ship, Brock could not help but shiver. He did not like the ocean much. He did not mind rivers, pools, or even beach. The former two because they weren't deep enough for him to feel particularly threatened, the later because of the girls. Deep sea, kilometer deep sometime even, however, struck his very heart, especially since the SS Anne misadventure. Besides him, Erica also watched the water, lost in thought. He looked at her, and was stunned to see how beautiful she was. She looked so sweet, so innocent...He opened his mouth to comment on it...

"I'm sorry, I'm already taken." She smiled sweetly, as she crushed all his hopes. He sighed.

"You're hard." He accused.

"The most beautiful of roses still have a few thorns." She replied sweetly, smiling. "But right now, we have other things to think about than you going girl-crazy, I think." She told him.

"We definitely do." A level voice added, joining the conversation with no hints of emotions. Although, unlike her, he was no psychic, Brock had no need to turn to recognize Sabrina. 

Taking a deep breath and trying to forget about the rather humiliating scene which had just taken place - no doubt Sabrina had heard it - he wouldn't even be surprised if she had staged it all with her psychic powers for some reason , Brock lead them back inside, where Richie and the others were waiting. It was time to plan their assault on the Rocket base.

Unfortunately, they had no good maps. Tracey had given them sketch of the outside and of the various possible approach - few as they were - but they had no maps of the inside.Of course, they could have a few ideas of what it was like by looking at the design of other similar buildings, but any such knowledge they gained would be incomplete and unsufficient for the raid.

Looking at the map of the outside, Brock could not come up with a plan.

"We're going to have to split." Todd stated after looking at it for a while. Sabrina nodded approvingly.

"It's the only way. There are three doors, I guess that means one of us should head as secretely as possible toward each door." She added, still looking at the map. "Question is, how do we arrange our teams?" she added. 

"Gary will be..." Brock started, then broke off upon realizing the younger trainer was not with them. "Where is he?" he asked.

"I dunno. With Duplica, probably, though." Richie commented.

Brock looked at his friend in surprise, wondering what Richie was refering too...certainly not...but yet, it was the only thing that made sense with the comment. For a fleeting moment, Brock wondered how it was he had missed it when knew about Ash and Misty while they did not, and then, he wondered how it was anyone in her right mind could fall in love with Gary,

"Could someone get them up here?" he asked, wondering at the same time if it was a good idea,

"I'd rather not...they **might** not take it too well." Erica whispered softly, a tin smile on her face.

"Well, we kinda need them here..." Brock replied half-heartedly, knowing it was futile, that none of his friends would go down to fetch the two - lovebirds? - and that even if one of them did, he or she would return empty-handed.

"We can plan without them." Richie told him.

"Alright, alright." He finally nodded. They would have to be briefed on the plans later, but that would be better than no briefings at all. "As I was saying, we need to plan who get in by which door, since we already agreed to split."

"True. I'd say, two gym leader in each team, with a trainer in each of the first two group and Duplica and Todd in the last one." Sabrina suggested, getting approving nods from Daisy, Lily and Violet who had up to then remained silent. Todd looked at the map for a while longer, and then pointed at the main door.

"Not a bad idea. I'd say we wend in Sabrina and Violet by the front door. They are our bests - except Erica, but I need her elsewhere."

"Hey!" Lily and Daisy protested at once, but Sabrina and Erica nodded as Richie continued. "That door is likely to be the most heavily guarded, so we send in our best." 

He then pointed to another door, by the lake side, that was only accessible by a narrow strip of land.

"Next, that door is harder to access...at least by land. So, I think Daisy, and either Lily or Violet should be in charge there. Use your water-types to cross the lake." He suggested, getting both of them to nod. He finally fointed at the last door, close to the edge of a cliff, and again only accessible by a narrow strip of land. "We'll need an attack from below here. That will be up to your Onix Brock, and one of your grass type Erica. Think you can handle that?" he added, getting nods from both of them.

He took a breath. "Now, Duplica and I will go by the cliff door too. My pokemon can fly, and here can transform in any of ours, so that's no problem. And we'd better be at the least guarded door. Richie, do you have any good water type?" he asked, continuing with his plan.

"Nope. Guess that means front door for me." He said. 

"Yup. Anyway, you're a better trainer than Gary, so you'd better be where the resistance should be the stiffest. Which means Gary - he does have a Gyarados, doesn't he? - will be part of the lake team." Todd finally finished. Yet again, all of the team nodded, and Todd smiled, while Brock wondered where the young man had picked up such skills at tactic.

_______________________________

Meanwhile, belowdeck, Gary was sitting on a couch, with Duplica besides him, her arm around his shoulders.

"You still have not told me why you acted like you did." She told him softly.

"Why? Because I'm a egoistic, self-centered idiot. That's why." He replied harshly.

"No, you are not." She almost yelled, at the same time feeling a wave of pity overcoming her. "I've known you for a few days already, and I know you aren't like that all the time. That's just what you want others to think you are. And I just want to know why." She said, a bit angry with him, yet trying to be nice to him. Theirs was a peculiar relationship, and she would not endanger it if she could avoid it. They were not in love - not exactly. They were not exactly friends, either, closer than that.

Maybe, she reflected, they were in love and just not willing to admit it yet either of them. Maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, she liked the relationship they had, as if it was a piece that had been missing in her life since forever.

Something caught the light just under Gary's eyes and reflected it, almost causing her to jump away in surprise. Tears? From Gary? Had she broken his shell that far?

"I guess I might as well tell the story." He whispered. "It all started a few years ago. I had a nice group of friend- Ash and a few others - and we all had a lot of fun. But there were these other kids, and I wanted to be friends with them too...They thought I was too soft, so I tried starting to act hard and all...I lost my first group of friend, but of course the new ones would not let me in...I was so ashamed that I just couldn't get back to my friends and apologize...so I decided to keep up the act. Are you happy now?" he asked, glaring at her, yet somehow almost seeming to be afraid of her.

"Oh God...Gary...You should have told them about it. They would have welcomed you back if you had apologized. You know Ash, don't you? Can you really see him rejecting someone who was ready to apologize?" she told him softly.

"He hates me now." Was Gary's flat reply.

"And he'll forget about hating you just as soon as you find the courage to apologize." She replied.

"Maybe you're right...maybe...I just feel so alone...I never wanted to be alone, but that's all I managed to do with my life." He told her, then sighed.

"You don't have to be alone. I'm sure you can get Ash back as your friend, especially if he sees that you went out of your way to help him out." She told him on a soothing tone.

"Yeah...but...will you be with me Duplica?" he asked, his breath slightly hoarse. "I don't feel as much alone - alone at all - when you're there." He said, as more tears appeared in his eyes.

"Of course Gary. I'll be with you. I won't ever leave your side, until I die." She told him, as he put his head on her shoulder and wept openly.

____________________________

May stared at the man for a long time. When she had received the envelope calling her to this meeting in a restaurant of Pallet, it had seemed innocent enough, a simple normal envelope, with a simple letter asking her to be present at the restaurant by eight in the evening, three days later.

Only, now, sitting in front of the man, she was a lot less easy. He wore blue jeans and a blood red tee shirt, nothing unexpected in a fast food restaurant, but as he silently ate his cheesburger, she felt her eyes constantly drawn to the tiny embroidery on the sleeves. From afar, they were invisible, and from close on no one who did not know to look for them would know their significance. A number of small flowers - lotus.

"We are going to need you at the base soon for your training. You should get ready to leave." He told her. "We will be picking you up at midnight saturday."

She stared at him for a moment. She was supposed to be ready to leave - wihout letting anyone know where she was going - in three days? Three little, meager day to prepare herself? That was madness...Or was it? She wanted to be with them, because of what they taught...She did not agree completely with what they taught - but she hated pokemon, and so did they.

__

They stole my brother and my grandfather away from me... she remembered, anger bubbling in her. After having the affection of her loved ones stolen away by them, how hard had it been for her to accept the belief of the Lotus that pokemon were evil? 

In the back of her mind, she was already forming up a plan.

Chapter 9 : The Moment Before the Strike

The sky was stormy two days later as the Queen of Vermillion dropped her lines by the main pier of the Leman City harbor. Brock hoped that the dark clouds were not telling him about a dark future, because he knew he would need luck on the next day. They'd be going in with a slight numerical disadvantage - about 15 to 10 - and while Tracey so far had not reported any actual weapons in the arsenal of the opposition, there was no guarantee they had none.

And if they had some, they would be willing to use them - against his friends or himself. And to even think about that made him shudder. Yet, he could not dismiss the possibility that at the same time the next day, not all of his friends would even be alive.

Yet, what other choices did they have? The police would not intervene without proof, and they had nothing solid enough to convince them, and no means nor time to get the solid proof the officers wanted. Being part of Team Rocket was not enough - the declaration of rights of both Johto, Kanto, and the Orange Republic, prevented people from being dragged in for simply belonging to a group. Which meant that they could wear clothes that made them members of Team Rocket as much as they wanted, as long as they actually didn't steal or otherwise commit an illegal act, they were perfectly safe. And then, of course, you had to be able to proove they had comitted said illegal act.

Brock sighed. He knew the law had been thought up to fight against dictatorship such as what had been common not too long ago...but in this specific case, it hindered them rather than helped. 

As he walked down the gangway and jumpbed on the pier, he caught a sight of a young man in a greenish tee-shirt, with a red headband and medium lenght black hair. He seemed about Brock's own age.

"Tracey?" he asked, not sure even though he had talked to the young man on videophone a few time.

"Yup. Brock?"

"That's me." He said, as the two of them shook hands. "Any changes with our friends uphill?" he asked.

"Nope. I was there yesterday, still about ten of them, no obvious weapons, aside from their pokemon. As for pokemon, they have mostly poison, normal and dark types." Tracey reported.

"Dark types? What kind?" Todd, who had just joined them, wanted to know.

"Houndour, for the most part. Maybe a few umbreon, and a few Murkcrow. Nothng big, aside from the Umbreon."

"Those might be a problem." Todd said thoughtfully. "What's best to handle dark types?" he asked.

"Fighters works. Bugs types are not too bad at attacking dark pokemon, and we have a few of those. Steel types are resistant to dark attacks, too." Richie answered.

"Do we have any of those?" Sabrina asked.

"Not that I know. A few bugs. twi pokemon that evolves in steel type, but unevolved - Onix and Scyther." Richie reported.

"Guess that will have to do." They all nodded to Tracey's comment. "Think any of those could evolve by tomorrow?" he asked.

"Well, people aren't even too sure how Scyther and Onix evolves yet. They've seen it happen, but they have no idea how. So, I have no idea. It might happen, but we have no way of making sure it happens." Richie reported. "As for the poison type, we have enough psychic to dispatch them, and normal pokemon aren't much of a threat." He added.

"Good." Todd nodded.

"I think we should move out...the sailors seems after leaving, and we are in the way." Tracey commented.

"True. Are we going to the pokemon center?" Erica asked.

"No." Gary, who had just joined them after getting off the ship told them. "I made arrangement for a room in a local hotel. I have the money to pay for it, and we'll need all the rest we can get." He explained.

"Really?" Brock asked in amazement, surprised that the young man would do something for them all. "Thank you." He added, realizing what he had just said didn't sound really polite.

They headed for their hotel rooms, all knowing just how important the next day was.

________________________________________

May relaxed in her chair in her grandfather's laboratory, waiting for what she knew would soon come. Their was very little in the way of security measure in the laboratory, only a camera at each entrance, to see people coming in. And she knew how easy it would be to deceive those camera - especially since they were not recording sound, only images.

Thus, it would be easy for the plan she had explained to the young officer at the restaurant - Eric Nelson, he had said his name was - to work. She would be able to get away, and they would score a major blow at all those who believed in pokemon, and who would use them.

With a smile she started gathring the pokeballs from the shelves, and putting them in her backpack, one after the other. They had all been recalled for the night, and we're defenseless as she gathered them, taking them for the Lotus. A soft laugh escaped her lips. It was a perfect plan, really. When the Lotus agents would come, in Rocket clothes, they would pick up the bags, and fake kidnapping her, thus making it appear as if the labs had been raided by Team Rocket, and as if she had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was a perfect plan, especially since she had made sure that her grandfather would not wake up in time to do anything - neither would her parents. She had seen to it, though she hadn't liked having to do so.

________________________________

"So that's the place, isn't it?" Elayne asked as she looked at the old, half-ruined tower that apparently contained the eons-old scrolls that apparently were the objective of the mission they had been sent on. For a brief moment, she wondered what made those scroll so important that Giovanni would send his only son out to fetch them.

And why it was that her tale about the strange individual getting her as an high-ranking Rocket member had troubled the young man so much, so much that his eyes had seemed distant for nearly half an hour, as if seeking an answer within his own mind. For that matter, she still wondered why the woman had taken her under her wings that way. 

With a weary sigh, she checked her pokeballs - the grass type pokemon that were there, to ensure that they were ready to help her in case they needed it - which seemed far more than likely. Her Tangela, Ivysaur, Exeggutor and Gloom all seemed ready for action. Besides her, Damian was doing the same, calling out his five pokemons - Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Umbreon and Espeon - to check them up.

"Yup. According to my father, there shouldn't be much in the way of resistance, but we'd better be careful." He answered while continuing to check his pokemon.

After recalling the nine beasts, they carefully stepped inside the tower, their hands on their pokeballs - Damian's on his Espeon's, her on her Ivysaur's. They checked the first floor carefully, before proceeding on to the next one, wondering where they would find the library that apparently housed the ancient scroll - and what kind of defenders would be there.

The last question was first answered, as a quatuor of mean looking arcanine appeared. With a brief flicker of his hand, Damian was throwing a pair of pokeball, and despite knowing that they wouldn't do much good with the type disadvantage they were at, she did the same, sending out Ivysaur and Gloom, hopeing that their poison type would help them…but not thinking so.

The Arcanine ran toward them, strangely enough all of them going toward Damian, who stepped back and slightly to the left to avoid them. They jumped at him, and just as they were about to hit, there was a sinister sound, and the floor under Damian gave way, revealing a deep pit, a fall that he certainly wouldn't survive. The Arcanine suddenly vanished, as if they never had been there, and Damian was left holding the edge of the floor with his hands, with no way to get back.

Elayne raced toward him, even as he ordered her to get the scrolls and get away. Ignoring the orders – which she knew would cost her her part in Team Rocket, if not her life, she instead bent and tried to pick him up to lift him back, straining with all her might, ignoring his protests that he could get himself out of trouble without her help, and that he didn't need her help. 

Yet, try though she might, there was no way to force him back but she could not give up – she knew that if he fell down in the chasm, she would simply take a step and follow him. If he was lucky and lived, hopefully so would she, and otherwise, she wouldn't see the world without him.

With one last effort, she managed to pull him back on safer grounds. As he rose back on his feet, he glared at her.

"Why the hell did you do that? You could have died…" he told her angrily.

"Well, too bad." She answered, her anger showing through her eyes. "I'm not about to let you die."

"Why?" he asked, his eyes which were usually so gentle filled with unrelenting anger.

"Because I love you, damn it! Is that so hard to understand? Now you've made me go and say it. I guess you're happy?"

The anger vanished from his face as suddenly as it had come, replaced by disbelief, and what seemed to be happiness. Yet, she wouldn't let herself think it was that. Never – it would be too much too hope for.

"Yes I am. Happier than I ever could say." He told her, answering her question. "I would never even have dared to dream that you would tell me that one day." He added, taking her hand and fondly caressing her long fingers. "I love you too."

With a smile, he let go of her hand and the two of them walked toward the room that the illusionary Arcanine had protected, entering it easily, to find, as they had both suspected they would, the scrolls they had been sent after. There were five of them, easy to recognize from Giovanni's description – from what Damian said – and they soon were able to leave the tower.

As they walked outside, she took his hand in hers, and held it tightly, not interested in letting go at all.

___________________________

Gary watched the sun rise over Leman's island, just as he felt his mind rising again with hope that he would be able to break the infernal circle he had entered. Below, no one has started to rise, and in the soft, golden light of dawn, a wind was shaking the branchs of the palm trees that bordered the street on every side.

He smiled, a smile of hope and renewal. For a moment, he considered getting some more sleep to be at peek strenght when they attacked the Rocket base, but then he discarded the idea, prefering to continue watching the sunrise instead.

Someone knocked at his door, and for a fleeting instant Gary wondered who it was, before the obvious answer came to his mind a split second before a voice came, confirming it.

"Gary? Can I come in?" Duplica's voice softly asked from the other side.

"Of course." He answered, going to the door to open it.

She stepped in, wearing simple jeans and a blue tee-shirt. When he looked at her in surprise, she gave him a simple explanation.

"I don't want any fancy clothes cluttering me today." She smiled. "What were you doing?"

"Watching the sun rise" He told her, whispering, as if talking any louder would have broken his happy mood.

With a smile, Duplica walked to the window, and he followed her, wondering what she wanted, though deep inside he knew, but would not admit it, too afraid to be wrong. She had hinted at it several time, and so had he, but yet neither of them had openly admitted to loving the other. He was sure he did, and he thought she did too, but he would never admit that deep inside he thought so. The consequences of being wrong would be too shattering.

"Gary...I got something to tell you." She whispered softly.

"What is it?" he asked, his heart beating faster at the very idea that she might be about to say...that.

"You have to promise me something though." She added. "You'll be my friend, no matter what, won't you?" she said, shivering as she did so, despite the fact that the air wasn't cold. Gary could only assume she was afraid - but of what? Loosing him? Again, that lead to things he would not dare to think about even in his dreams.

"Of course I promise." He answered rapidly, knowing that he would have promised anything for her sake.

"Well...the matter is...I know we haven't known each other for even a week but..." she tried to say, apparently at a loss for words. Finally, she took a deep breath. "I love you Gary." She said, her face crimson, her body shaking uncontrollably.

Gary felt as if he could explode, so great was the joy that filled him. He wrapped his arms tightly around the shivering young woman, and whispered softly in her ear.

"I love you too. More than I could ever tell." He whispered, seeing her eyes light up with an unearthly happiness as she let her head rest on his shoulders and as he softly kissed her forehead.

Chapter 10 : Seeking the Storm

"There's just one thing wrong with that plan…Where do I fit in?" Tracey commented as the others told him about the plan that Todd had devised at the breakfast table in the hotel that morning. As he listened to them, Brock noticed that Gary and Duplica weren't paying much attention to the planning, as they apparently were busier thinking about each other. Gary's arm was on Duplica's shoulders, while her own arm was around Gary's waist, her head resting lightly on his shoulder. Brock almost felt a moment of stabbing jealousy that Gary, as nice as he seemed to have become, would have a girlfriend while he would not. But the moment was soon gone, and he turned his mind back to the problem.   
  
"You'll be at the main entrance with Richie, Sabrina and Violet. We need some bugs to cover Sabrina's psychic against any dark types we encounter." He explained, and Brock nodded as he remembered their conversation from the previous day.   
"All right" Tracey nodded, hefting two pokeball in his hand, without a shadow of a doubt the two containing his Scyther and Venonat.   
  
As they approached the mill, they each went their own way, Gary, Daisy and Lily toward the lake, himself, Erica, Todd and Duplica down at the bottom of a twisting ravine so that they could attack the mill from below, and Sabrina, Violet, Richie and Tracey toward the front gate, approaching as stealthily as they could in the forest.   
  
As his group headed toward the ravine, Brock carefully took out his Onix pokeball, watching as the other three each picked up a pokeball as well, and looked up.   
  
"Are we there?" Todd asked, trying to compare their current location with the map Tracey had drawn, so as to know if they had reached the right place to go back up or not.   
"Only one way to know." He answered, keeping his voice down as he slowly sent out one of his pokemon – Zubat.   
  
"Zubat! Go check if we are under the lumber mill!" he ordered the little bat-like pokemon, who immediately flew away, coming back nodding a few second later, a few second that had seemed to last an eternity to Brock.   
  
"All right. Time to head in." He told them, sending out his Onix and watching Erica doing the same with her Venusaur. They'd need the two of them to head in and do the damage they were after doing.

All at once, Erica's Venusaur shot out her vines, wrapping them around a solid tree way upward. Similarly, Brock's Onix simply rose to stand on the tip of his tail, carrying Brock, Duplica and Todd to the top.  
  
After a few minutes, they were all upward, and unnoticed of the two rocket who were a bit further away from the door, at the narrow place where there were barely two meters between the mill wall and the cliff edge, both of them watching away from the door. With a flicker of her vines, Erica's Venusaur tied down the two, gagging them at the same time, and brought them close to her, suddenly sending a wave of stun spore in their faces, causing them to fall down on the ground.   
  
Brock headed toward the slightly rusty metal door, fearing that it would either creak or be locked, but neither fear proved true as he easily opened it, giving them a way in.   
____________________________________   
  
"Are you ready?" Sabrina whispered to her companions as they watched the main door to the rocket-controlled mill, and the three guards protecting it.   
"Yup." Richie nodded, and shortly after violent and Tracey did the same.   
"Time to do it, then." She told them. They had sneaked in by the forest, staying hidden in the densest part all the time, only relying on Sabrina's ability to find human's thought to keep a general idea of where their target was. Finally, they had reached it, though they were a few minutes late on the plan, two or three maybe.   
  
Firmly calming down any fear her mind might have, Sabrina channeled a tiny flow of her psychic power, specifically the telekinetic variant. On the opposite side of the pathway, a tree branch broke with a sharp snap. Sabrina watched with a satisfactory smirk as two of the three guards headed toward the source of the noise, watching warily aground them, yet falling to notice the four hiding in the wood on the side opposite to that of the sound they had heard. With a smile, Sabrina channeled another flow of psychic power, this time to take a tiny bit of control of the third guard, putting him to sleep before he could even begin to wonder about what it was that had lured his companions away - or worries about being left alone to guard the door.   
  
Sending a careful probing thought throughout the surrounding area, she checked that the other two guards were too far away, looking for the source of the noise to intervene. She rose from her place of concealment, and watched the others doing the same, then headed toward the now unguarded door, still keeping a psychic watch out for the two guards she had sent in the forest, hoping that they would not return at a less than appreciable time, such as right then. But apparently they didn't, and it was easy for Sabrina and her companions to enter the base, closing the door behind the sleeping guard.   
  
Once they were in, Sabrina sent out another probing touch of psychic powers toward the mind of the sleeping guard, waking him up and thus removing all traces of them entering. The guards would have to be dealt with again when they would leave, but better that than making all other guards aware of their presence. As it was, the guard at the door would not even remember falling asleep, and would be convinced he had remained up the whole time, and of course would have no idea about them entering the base.   
  
She smiled as they headed deeper inside, watching as the other released their pokeball, while her Gengar trailed behind her, and her Kadabra walked to her side. They were ready to face anything, at least she was.   
________________________________   
  
Gripping the neck of his Gyarados, the only part of the great beast that could be seen above sea level, Gary kept his eyes on the shore they would soon reach, and on his companions who were being carried by their Blastoise and Dewgong, respectively. For the thousandth time he wished that the plan that they had devised for their attack did not involve keeping him and Duplica apart, as he wished nothing more than to be with her, especially after what they had told each other earlier in the morning. A smile crept across his face as he remembered, but chasing it away, he became deadly serious once again, watching the shore for any sign of Rocket watching out for them, but finding none.   
  
They landed a second later, drawing out their pokeball and sending out their pokemon. Gary signaled to his two companions to remain hidden, knowing that he could deal with the two guards by himself. He approached them, and sent out his nidoking and nidoqueen, who easily knocked out the two guards before they could send out anyone to intercept them. He recalled them, knowing they would be more useful as secret weapons once inside the mill than out where everyone could see and, more important, hear them.   
  
Lily pushed the door open as Daisy recalled all of her pokemon that could not be stealthy enough to give them the advantage of surprise in their assault, something they would definitely need. With one last thought of Duplica, Gary followed them inside.

_______________________

Ethan Starkhad smiled as he admired the pokeball that he had not sent to the two idiots who thought he was working for them. There were two of them only, but they were two of the three most powerful - Jessie and James had already sent the other powerful ones before he arrived. He did not want the two victims to be powerless; after all, since they were supposed to do some damage to Team Rocket, which, combined with the coup he had staged, would be enough to cause the mighty shadow empire to crumble.

A slight buzzing sound caught his attention, and he turned to his computer screen, which controlled all of the many hidden cameras and motion detectors in the mill. He rapidly caught sight of the three groups of intruders, and looked at them a long while, hesitating before making his final choice.

__

One of them must fall, so that the Rocket fall with that one... he reflected, remembering the heart of the plan he had devised to break Team Rocket, and the power they had to oppose the Crimson Lotus.

He finally made his choice, drew his handgun, and then took a long look at a map of the mill, wondering where best to catch his prey, so that there would be no way for her to escape him. One of the many mechanisms he had just installed would be perfect for that he realised, as she was walking slightly ahead of her companions. He keyed in the number of the matching camera, and watched, waiting for her to appear at the appropriate location.

_____________________________________________

Duplica kept on, setting the speed for the others who certainly did not want to be left behind, and eager to rescue Ash and Misty and be out of the creepy mill that sent shiver down her spine. Ditto was besides her, in the shape of a great Arcanine, walking proudly.

Suddenly, just after she stepped through the doorway, a great steel door shut down just behind her, keeping her away from her friends on the other side, with only Ditto and her on this side. She took a deep breath, trying not to let panic overcome her, and before the cloud of dust that had appeared with the door shutting down could vanish, she had ordered Ditto to take her shape, confident that a second human would be worth far more than an Arcanine.

Yet again, she felt a chill travel down her spine as she realized that she was now cut off from all her friends, in a base that was probably filled to the brim with enemies, and without much in the way of weapon. She went on forward, bravely, and finally heard the door that had closed opening as she reached the other end of the room.

Suddenly, she heard a loud noise, and there was a blaze of light.

______________________________________________

Brock shielded his eyes from the intense light that had appeared at the other end of the room, trying to discern Duplica, hoping that she was all right, knowing that the chances were not too high, as the sound they all had heard sounded just too much like a gunshot for it to be something else.

Panic welled up in him, as he could not see her form as the light subsided. He had barely caught sight of her shadow, strangely seeming doubled, when the door had opened, and now...

Now, he could finally see her - her body, fallen on the ground. He rushed toward her, not knowing if he would be able to do anything, very much afraid he wouldn't be able to help at all. He wanted to scream in frustration at the realization, knowing that if they had forced her to slow down it would have been enough to spare her life, to let her live another day...

Now, there was only her fallen body, and a weeping Dito besides it. Brock gently picked up the pink amoebae, and put it on his shoulder. Yet, the amoebae jumped off, taking as it did the shape of a pidgey and flying besides him. For a moment, Brock wondered at the strange behavior, but had no time to do so. A group of rocket trainer - three of them - was coming from a nearby room, and he had to fight them if he wanted a chance at finishing the mission, without being taken out.

With a sad sigh, he sent out his Onix, Geodude, Vulpix and Zubat. Behind him, Erica joined him, sending out her own pokemon to fight off the three criminals.

The rockets sent out their own pokemon, three raticates, an houndoom, a fearow and an arbok. Despite being very badly outnumbered, they seemed willing to put up a good fight.

"Raticate! Hyper Fang!" the order flew from three mouths at once as the tree rat-like pokemon flung themselves at the group of pokemon. Cold fury filling his heart, Brock ordered his Onix to intercept them, and the rock snake did so, blocking the attacks...

And then a strange reaction started. Maybe it was the steel walls of the factory, maybe it was something else, but it seemed somehow as if the steel around them was spreading, covering Onix's body, as the great worm glowed brightly, evolving.

"STEELIX!" the worm bellowed as the light subsided so that they could all see the rocky body had become covered with a thick metallic armor, shielding the great snake from enemy attacks even more securely.

"Houndoom! Flamethrower!" one of the rocket bellowed, pointing with his fingers at the great worm, his eyes locked on his great flame wolf. 

"Arbok, use dig to get past that Steelix and attack those trainers." the second rocket added, a wicked smile on his face as he calmly gave the order.

"Fearow...fly...over that Steelix. Take out the trainers, too." The third trainer added, after hesitating for a while, as if he did not know what he meant for his pokemon to do.

"Erica, Brock, can you handle the two pokemon coming at us?" Todd told them, taking out his pokeball, ready to throw it and reveal his mysterious pokemon.

"Yeah, we'll do that. Erica, you take care of that Arbok. I'll deal with the Fearow."

Erica nodded once, whispering a few words to her Bellossom, who stood ready, watching wearily all around to attack the Arbok the second it would pop up.

"Vulpix, the second you can do it without hitting Steelix, you fire a flamethrower at that Fearow! Geodude! You cover Steelix! Make sure that houndoom doesn't get a shot in!"

The two pokemon nodded in approval, Geodude quickly levitating over to the other side, so as to take on the attack and Vulpix crouching to fight.

Todd weighted his pokeball in hand, and slowly started speaking.

"All right big boy. You wanted to come along back when we were on pokemon island, and you wouldn't leave me alone, even when I left...now, I need you." He whispered, holding the pokeball tightly, then swiftly throwing it, releasing something Brock had never expect to see...

In the darkness of the abandoned mill, the creature seemed like a point of light, as it's long orange body emerging from the beam of light of the pokeball, the single pearly white horn catching what few light there was and sending it back coruscating. The great wings flapped, easily holding the creature in the air, and Brock had the impression that the creature could circle the world in a moment if it so wanted. Its eyes shone with intelligence as he turned to face the Rocket immediately upon release, as Todd yelled while releasing it.

"DRAGONITE! I CHOOSE YOU! Hyper Beam on those rockets!" he yelled,

The great dragon looked at the rocket grunts gathered, who suddenly looked on the beast as if seeing their own doom. A single bright spot of light appeared in the beast's mouth, and then it flew off, a gigantic spear of light aimed at the rocket members. As it hit the floor in the middle of the triangle their frozen enemies, the beam caused an explosion just as big as the one that had hidden what had happened to Duplica from view. As the dust fell back down, the three Rockets where sprawled on the ground. Their three Raticate were, too, easily defeated by the great Steelix, as well as their other pokemon, outmatched by Bellosom, Vulpix and Geodude.

Todd moved closer to Duplica's body, and put a hand to her neck. A short moment after, he confirmed what they all feared what they all knew in the depths of their hearts but would not admit.

"She's dead." He told them, and Brock could see in the faint light a few tears rolling down the young man's cheek - the same tears, perhaps, that he felt slowly coming down from his eyes.


	3. Part 3 : Oath of Revenge

1-3 

Part 3 : Oath of Revenge

Chapter 11 : Abating Storm

The two grass pokemon stared at the attacking trainers, having been sent out by their rocket trainers to fend off the onslaught - and from what Gary could see, it seemed like they would be rather effective at the job, because Lily and Daisy had nothing save water types, which just so happened to be weak to grass attack.

"Venusaur! Razor leaf!" the first ordered, a vicious grin on his face.

"Victreebel! Vine Whip!" the second added, smiling at what would certainly be an easy victory.

__

Easy victory, yeah, I'm sure of it Gary thought, readying his own pokemon for the battle.

"Arcanine! Dodrio! You show them!" he yelled, releasing his two pokemon, whom he had recalled earlier. "You show them! Arcanine, Flamethrower on that Venusaur! Dodrio, Drill Peck on that Victreebel!" he yelled his own order. He might not be as good a trainer as he claimed to be, but he was far from bad, and he would show them.

Dodrio ran swiftly toward the carnivorous plant, stiking it with his three beaks repeatedly, while Arcanine feared a great wave of flame at the grass dinosaur. Meanwhile, the two pokemon had not been idle, and a flurry of leaves was coming rapidly toward the sisters' dewgong, while the Victreebel's vines shot out toward the Horsea they had brought with them.

The horsea was sent tumbling by the attack, falling off Daisy's shoulder, while the leaf badly wounded the dewgong as they covered the white body with ugly scratch. However, the attackers were not left with any time to congratulate themselves, as the flames of Arcanine burned the Venusaur until it's body was completely black, before causing its trainer to pass out, while Dodrio swiftly knocked the Victreebel out with constant pecking, then proceeding to knock out the creature's trainer with a well aimed kick.

"Good job guys." Gary smiled, before he felt a terrible chill down his spine. Something terrible had just happened, he knew it, though he could not explain how. Despite the oppressive feeling, he managed to brush aside worries about what it was that had happened, and to concentrate on the current situation. The two trainers were out, and with the guards they had eliminated at the door, that made for four guards out. Adding in what the others surely had managed to take out at their own doors, it made for a good nine guards out of a dozen or so - most of the Rocket, in fact.

______________________________________

Sabrina felt a sudden chill, and recoiled as her mind, which she was using to probe ahead of them, encountered a dark and menacing presence the like of which she had never seen before. It was a man, yet at the same time it wasn't - it was something else as well, as if the man's soul had a strange second side, completely animal.

"Watch out! Someone's coming our way..." she whispered to the others, leading them in what seemed a side room as the strange and menacing presence came closer.

She almost closed the door, then hesitated and left it barely open, so that she could see outside, and placed herself to watch. A few seconds later, the mysterious presence passed by the door, walking with a smirk on his face. He wore a long black coat, and had short red hair. In his hand, he held a smoking gun, and Sabrina felt a chill at the sight.

__

I just hope he didn't use it on one of the others... she thought, before concentrating on tracking the alien presence until she could make sure they were safe to come out. When he was far away enough - out of the mill entirely, as far as she could tell - she signaled the others that it was time to go, but just as they were about to leave Tracey spotted a pair of pokeballs lying down on a desk.

He picked one of them up, and, experimentally, as if he was checking a suspicion, he threw it out. A great blue creature appeared, smiling as it was for the first time released in a long while, as far as Sabrina could say. It was also the first time in a long while that she saw a Lapras.

"I wonder who left a pokemon like that in here..." Violet said, extending her hand to take the ball.

"The Rockets." Tracey replied. "I know that Lapras - it's Ash's." he added.

"Really? But why would they leave two of Ash's pokemon - and a rare one like that - here?" Richie wondered.

"I don't know." Tracey admitted. "But I know that Lapras - and seems like that Lapras recognize me"

Violet smiled, and so did Sabrina, though only a very slight smile, when she saw the Lapras poking Tracey gently with his head.

"Seems so, yeah." She nodded, and watched as Tracey recalled the pokemon, adding the two pokeballs to his belt.

They exited the room, Sabrina still using her mind to keep watching out for enemies waiting for them.

__________________________________________

"Oh...poor little thing..." Daisy whispered as she picked up the fallen Horsea as they got ready to move again in their attempt to find out where Ash and Misty were held. Only, as she picked him up, light began to stream from his body - a telltale bright white light.

"It's evolving!" Lily shouted in excitement, and Gary winced and could only hope no one had heard that - at least no Rocket.

Spiked wings like appendage began to appear on the back of the little creature as it grew significantly, and as it took a shape that make it look definitely deadlier than what it had seemed, the cute appearance replaced by a vicious dragon-like look. When the light faded, Daisy held a Seadra in her arms.

Gary smiled as he realized that this meant Misty would have a second powerful pokemon, even though he didn't care much about the young red-haired tomboy - but Ash did care about her, though Gary had no idea if it was as a friend or something more, and he was determined to end his conflict with Ash.

"Hey! Gary!" a voice suddenly shouted from the opposite end of the hallway from the one by which they had entered. He turned to see Richie, Tracey, Sabrina and Violet coming in from that way. "Glad to get back with you guys!" Tracey added. "Where do we check now?"

Richie looked around for a moment, noticing the various doors in the hallway they were in. He pointed to one of them, the only one that seemed not to be leading in a simple room, but rather in a hallway, from what they could see through the small opening. He pushed it open, while Gary and the others stood ready to send in their pokemon.

The hallway before them was empty, with only one more door at the other end, a close door with what seemed a bit like a cat door, but too high for it to be of any use for a cat, as if it had been meant to push things to people inside.

"I think that's the place." Sabrina said. The glow in her eyes became a bit more intense than it had been, and she added. "I sense one...no...two presence I encountered before there...Might be Ash and Misty." She told them slowly.

Gary smiled, knowing it was time for him to act. "I'll deal with that door." He said as he took one of his pokeball and threw it. His nidoking appeared ahead of them, and raced toward the door, smashing it with one huge blow from his fist, opening the door, and letting them look at two very startled teenagers - a black-haired young man and a red-haired girl. Gary sighed in relief - they were done, they had gotten Ash and Misty back.

_____________________________

As the door broke open with a loud cracking noise, Ash whirled to face it, feeling Misty doing the same just behind her. As the dust settled, he felt a grin settling on his face as he recognized the figures standing outside - they were definitely not with Team Rocket, though some of them he hadn't expected to see going out of their way to rescue him. Misty's sisters were there, unsurprisingly, and so were Tracey and Richie, as well as Sabrina, surprisingly, and even more surprisingly, leading the group, Gary with a grayish cloak made of wool on his back.

And then, realization came to him, and a strange exhilaration as well. They were free. After over a week prisoners of the mill, they were FREE! He felt like dancing, like shouting, like jumping around, he just wanted to let the whole world know how happy he was. Misty was already running toward her sister, but before Ash could run toward his friends, they were joining him. 

To Ash's astonishment, Gary did not come to him to boast about saving him, or about Ash's being captured. He stood off to the side, his face filled with - was it relief? There was no way to tell. There also seemed to be some strange kind of fear in his eyes as he looked at him. Turning back to Richie and Tracey, he smiled at them.

"Thanks guys!" he told them, once again feeling as if he was impossibly light now that he was free, as if he could fly.

"Hey, you seriously thought we'd leave you hanging Ash?" Tracey replied, smiling. "You'd have done the same for us." He added, grinning.

While he talked to them, Ash found his eyes drawn to Gary once again. There was something undeniably different about his one-time friend, he seemed so much like...like his old self, from the time when they had been friend.

"Hey Gary, thanks for coming, too." Ash told him, uncertain how the young man would react.

"You're welcome Ash." He replied simply, almost - was it possible? - shyly. "And...I...I'm sorry for all those things I told you those last few years, all those time I bullied you or belittled you. I...I don't know if you'll be able to ever forgive me, but..." Gary said, and Ash felt his mind shudder at the thought of how much will it must have taken his once-time - and maybe future? - friend to simply admit that.

"Well, I certainly hated you a lot while we were both on our way to become masters but..." He sighed. "I guess we can both put that behind us, uh? You came to help me here, so I owe you that much." He added, and wondered if he was busily falling for a trap from Gary, or doing the right thing.

"Uh...sorry to interrupt your chat, Ash, but so far, there are at least three rocket members unaccounted for, and three of the others might wake up and get in any moment...I'd rather not face them anytime soon..." Sabrina interrupted them suddenly, after talking with Daisy and Lily.

"We took care of those three rocket." A voice said in a somber tone from the entrance of the room. Ash turned again to see Brock entering. From his look, it was obvious that he had been weeping, and so had the others with him - Todd and Erica.

Ash heard someone gasping behind him, and turned to see Gary's face becoming white as a sheet. Looking at the other, he could also see that they all suddenly had fear in their eyes. He wondered why they would become so afraid of a simple thing such as Brock coming in and telling them he had defeated the last three rockets...

"We took care of those three rocket." Brock continued somberly. "But they took care of Duplica..." he added, then stopping, and Ash had the impression for a moment that his friend was fighting back tear as he walked toward Gary and put an hand on his shoulder.

"I'm very sorry Gary...but she's dead..." he told him, and Gary's face became even whiter, as Ash tried to understand why Duplica being dead would affect Gary so much.

Chapter 12 : The Oath

The moment the words from Brock's mouth confirmed his deepest fear, Gary staggered back, falling down in one of the half ruined chair in the room that had served as a prison for Ash and Misty. He curled up, and wept openly, his heart shattered by the news.

Duplica was dead. The girl who had given him a new life, given him a new hope, the girl who had told him she loved him that morning, was dead. The one girl he had cared for more than anything, the one girl he loved.

She was dead.

Warm tears ran down his cheeks, and he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, but didn't even bother to find out who the owner of the hand was. He had lost his sole reason to live, his will to go on. He wanted to die, to be with her. Forever.

A memory floated back to the surface of his mind. A promise he had made to Duplica, back when they had been on the ship, on the way to the Orange archipelago. A promise he could not decide not to keep - he cared for Duplica way too much for that. He heard Richie telling Ash about Duplica and him, and the promise came to his mind again. 

He had to rebuild his friendship with Ash, and he would do that. He had promised Duplica he would, and he would.

"Team Rocket's going to pay for that." He heard Misty stating, and slowly the pain of the loss of Duplica withdrew, though it was still very much present, but now there was an even stronger feeling in his broken heart - the thirst for revenge. Duplica had been murdered, and the murderers would pay.

"They'll pay, all right." He replied.

___________________________

When Richie told him about the reason of Gary's reaction, Ash felt a wave of wrenching pity overcome him. Gary had just lost his reason to live, that was obvious. He felt an overwhelming urge to go to his one time friend and comfort him, to offer him friendship, the very same friendship that they had lost before, to help support him, but before he could do so, Tracey and Brock stopped him and handled him three pokeball. 

"We found those two in the mill Ash. One is your Lapras, the other I don't know. Might be one of Misty's." Tracey explained. 

"And this one...well, it's an old friend...your Pikachu - he's waiting for you down in the city - ran in her a while ago, apparently." Brock added, handing him the pokeball. Ash called out the two pokemon, and felt his heart leap in joy as his Pidgeot and Charizard appeared, both of them seemingly very glad to see him. He turned to see Misty's sister handling her two more pokeball, and to see Misty releasing the two pokemon - her Starmie and a Seadra. He saw her head lowering, and instantly knew she was thinking about Togepi, Staryu and Psyduck. Her sisters started to comfort her, and Ash turned away. There was someone who need the comfort far more than Misty did. He put a hand on Gary's shoulder, noticing that Sabrina had put an hand on his other shoulder.

______________________________

Four days. Four days already had passed since the eventful assault on the Rocket base, and now, now that the various local police forces were done "investigating" and concluding that they were indeed telling the truth, it was time for the sad moment they had all avoided for so long. As the coffin was slowly brought down in the small shrine, Gary felt tears rolling down his cheek as Duplica was laid to rest, as he remembered one last time the perfect look of her face as he had looked at her one last time before the burial.

His friends were gathered around him, and all of them had their head bowed in grief just like him, though he knew that their grief was nothing like his, that his grief went much deeper than any of their.

Yet at the same time he felt a powerful urge to destroy, to kill, to destroy. The priest's words about forgiveness and peace, and about Duplica being born to a better life went unheard, as he only though about running a knife through the body of every last rocket member.

At length, the ceremony was over, and everyone but the ten trainers who had assaulted the rocket base, Ash, and Misty left. The twelve of them moved closer to the tomb, and to the little marble shrine that Sabrina, the Waterflower sisters and Erica had managed to have build with their money. Outside the small shrine, rain started to fall, one of those savage late summer rainfall.

"What do we do, now?" Brock was the first to voice it, though the question was running through every mind. "I don't think any of us want the Rockets to get away with that, do we?" he added.

They all agreed on that, for sure. Some of them nodded, some of them said "no" in a low tone, but they all agreed that the Rockets could not get away with what they had done.

Gary was the first to do it, but once they saw him doing so, they all imitated him.

He put his hand on the stone marking Duplica's grave, the stone that marked the slab in the small shrine floor under which the coffin rested. He put his hand on it, took a deep breath, and started speaking in a low tone.

"I, Gary Oak, swear that I will not rest until Team Rocket is finally defeated, it's plaguing evil forever removed from the face of the world. I will only rest when all those rocket involved, from afar or from close, in the murder of Duplica will be dead or in prison." He said, taking as formal a tone as he could muster, though he had no idea why he was doing so. It just seemed fitting that such a tremendous oath would be taken that way.

One by one, the others did the same. Ash was first to follow, and his eyes shone with the fires of revenge as he did so, both revenge for Duplica, and revenge for the long time they had spent imprisoned in the dark room of the mill. That fire was mirrored in Misty's eyes as she swore, barely a moment later, her words so very similar to Gary, while Ash had used a different way of saying it, though just as binding.

Brock came next, and with him Tracey, both of them having fought Team Rocket for years without end, both of them having been friends of Ash and Misty for a long while. Then came Richie and Todd, both of them with strangely blank face, both of them eager to fight. Richie had been the one responsible for the plan that had led to Duplica getting killed, though no one of them could blame him for how events had turned out, while Todd had been forced to watch while she died - watch and do nothing.

Then came they gym leaders, Lily and Daisy first, then Violet, then Sabrina and Erica together, all of them somehow more reluctant to take such a strong oath, all of them bound by worldly obligations. Yet they all swore, though it seemed to Gary that in hunting down Team Rocket, they would probably loose much, even perhaps their gym. But if they wanted to help, it was their right to do so.

__________________________________

The plan had worked without problem, and May was in a self-congratulatory mood as the small VTOL* plane came closer and closer to the strangely shaped mountain north of Cerulean, dominating the northern reaches of the Moon sea.

The two enormous propellers of the craft were now in a horizontal position, parallel to the plane and to the ground. With their help, the machine made its way forward in the sky, coming still closer to what was the Lotus headquarters from all that she could guess. In the hold of the plane, the pokemon they had stolen from her grandfather laboratory were all in their pokeballs, and she knew all of them would probably be killed as soon as they got there.

For a fleeing instant, she almost felt guilty. Those pokemon were prized possession or loyal companions of their owners, and to take them away somehow seemed wrong, yet on the other hand, she could only feel contempt for the creatures. And the teaching of the Lotus, while hard to believe, were clear on the point that pokemon were creatures of darkness, and that they had to be killed. 

An opening appeared close to the water at the base of the mountain, a huge gaping maw in the mountain, and the plane entered the cavern. May readied her eyes for the darkness, and was surprised when she realized the cavern was in fact well lit, and that she could easily see what was inside - and it was more than enough to cause her to gasp. 

In the water of the cavern, ranks of powerful warships were anchored to concrete piers, some of them enormous and bristling with guns, some smaller and with fewer weapons. Some of them had flat decks and were filled with planes just like the one she was in, and some of them had absolutely nothing on their deck save a single tear-shaped small tower - obviously, submarines. 

"Impressive, isn't it?" the man besides her, who had identified himself as Colonel Eric Nelson, told her.

"Yeah..." she whispered softly, watching the warships in amazement. "How did the lotus get all those?"

"I can't give you the details, but many of those were "supposedly" lost in storms, or scrapped...the Lotus just so happened to be in the right spot to prevent them from being wasted. Of course, that's the explanation we give for fun. The truth in most cases is that the captains and sizeable parts of the crews were willing to abandon their former allegiance, and join the Lotus definitely. They brought their ships along." He told her, grinning. 

"That's got to be the largest gathering of power I've seen ever..." she added, her eyes filled with amazement at the war machines waiting.

"Yeah. When the war start, no one will stand a chance." Nelson replied, a smile on his face. May shuddered at the term. War. It certainly meant soon it would no longer be just a simple statement that she didn't like pokemon. Soon, she would fight, and kill, in the name of that belief.

Joining the Lotus didn't sound like such a great idea, at that point, but it was far too late to sign off. 

________________________________

"I wonder what's so precious about these two books that your father would send you to get them like that." Elayne told Damian as they were walking back toward the headquarters, a few days away from where they were. 

"I don't know. At first I expected them to have to do with the Prophecies of Twilight, but they have nothing to do with that." Damian replied, looking at the books wonderingly as he followed her.

"Prophecies of twilight?" she asked, and Damian silently cursed himself for being so careless as mentioning them in front of someone who had no idea what this was all about.

"Some old prophecies. He likes to read them." Damian replied, carefully avoiding to mention that Damian was probably an even bigger reader of those prophecies than his father, and that as far as he could muster, he was destined to play a key role in them. Not one of the nine heroes, but he was definitely mentioned in the prophecies, though he didn't like what he thought applied to him.

"Ah, ok." She nodded, and started walking once again. It would take them a few more days to reach the mill, and they both were eager to put that mission behind them, except of course for one thing that had happened in it. Damian smiled as he accelerated a little, catching up to Elayne and taking her hand as they both walked eastward. She smiled back at him, and lightly kissed him as they headed that way.

* VTOL: Vertical take-off and landing. A airplane that can take off and land like an helicopter.

Chapter 13 : Plans of Campaign

The sun shone trough the windows of the hotel room, illuminating the whole place as a new morning rose, the morning after the seven of them had taken the oath to hunt down Team Rocket. Ash sat on a bed, holding Pikachu in his arms looking at his companions.. Misty was sitting in a rocking chair, holding Seadra close to her. It was one of her last two pokemon, and she wasn't letting him out of her sight...Gary was by the window, lost in thought, his eyes still filled with the pain of loosing Duplica, which was not very surprising. Knowing that she was dead had been hard for them all, and of course, for Gary even more so. Ash once again promised himself that he would be the loyal friend Gary needed in these hard times. 

Brock was close to Ash himself, apparently lost in though - or perhaps lost in looking alternatively at both Sabrina, Erica, Lily, Daisy and Violet. All the while that they had been about to storm the mill, he had managed to put his instincts out of the way, but now they were back with a vengeance. Tracey, Richie and Todd were looking at the heaps of maps on the table. The five gym leaders were talking together, apparently trying to come up with a solution to the problem of their oath conflicting with them wanting to hurt Team Rocket. Todd, Richie and Tracey were sitting around the table, elaborating a strategy. Which was to say, Richie explained his plan, while the others listened and nodded from time to time. Ash slowly got up and joined them, Pikachu perched on his shoulder.

"Best way to get them is to make them be overconfident." Richie was explaining, looking at them all. "We have to make them think we are all busy elsewhere, and have lots of us doing just that, while the others snoop around quietly - some trying to start from the mill and following their tracks until they find something, the others investigating in Kanto, since we know there headquarters is almost certainly there,, and try to find out just what is up with all that." He added. Tracey, Todd and Ash nodded.

"We won't be luring or snooping, though." Sabrina suddenly interrupted. "We've been talking," she said pointing at the other gym leaders "and we all think that we would be able to help much more from our gyms, sending you the money and the information we can come up with." She explained. Richie nodded quickly.

"That makes sense. If you send us the money, it will make things easier for us, and we'll be able to concentrate more on the hunt." He replied. "That means we'll have about four of us going..." He looked at the map, hesitating, then pointed an area, west of Kanto. "there, to Jhoto. They'll be the ones doing the beating around in the bushes." He added. 

"I'll go in that case. I don't think Ash or I would be very good at sneaking up." Misty was first to talk. And I'm sure Ash will come with me. As she said that, she walked closer to the table, and Ash smiled at her.

"I might as well tag along. I wouldn't be very good at the snooping quietly." He admitted. "Anyway, Team Rocket knows Misty and I too well." He added. He didn't like admitting it, but he knew it was true, and it wasn't a time where they could let pride get in their ways.

"Good. I think I'll tag along, too. I'd like to see what kind of pokemon they got around there, anyway." Richie added thoughtfully.

"I...I think I'll go along to...if you guys will let me come." Gary slowly said, seemingly very afraid of being rejected. Ash turned and smiled at him.

"You can come Gary. I have no problem with that...and if we are going to rebuild our friendship, we might as well be in the same area." He replied, grinning. 

"Thanks Ash." Gary replied, relief clear in his voice.

They were all silent for a while, as the remaining three members of their group considered the map, both of them wondering where it would be better to go. Brock had his eyes even smaller than usual, while Todd was just as concentrated as he usually was when working on taking a picture of a wild pokemon, a hard to get shot. Tracey was looking at the map as well, his eyes apparently weighting two possible choices.

"I'll take care of the Orange island, and of snooping around the mill." He finally said. "I know those islands the most of everyone here, so I'd probably be the best at handling things in them." He explained, getting nods of approval from mostly everyone.

"Well, I'll team up with you Brock if you want..." said Todd.

"Well, I have nothing against that Todd. Between the two of us, we should be able to uncover something in Kanto." Brock told his friend.

They continued their planning for a long while, considering how best to coordinate their efforts so that they would not start anything too quickly, and so that they would have drawn all the eyes in Team Rocket to the group of them beating around in the bush in Johto. 

"We'll have to find ships for most of us..." Gary realized at some point, and told them. Ash nodded, knowing his recovered friend was right - though it was not hard to know, seeing as Kaerlan was an island, and as Johto and Kanto did not happen to be on that island. 

The door to the room opened, and someone else entered, a man with gray hair Ash knew well, whom he had seen a few time since they had been freed of the Rocket base. He moved close to the table as he heard them talking.

"The St. Anne II will be leaving toward Pallet soon..." he pointed out. "Pallet is close to Johto anway, so you might as well visit your mother before going there Ash." He told him as he neared the room. "She's been very worried about you." He added. Ash nodded, realizing that the knowledge that her only son had been kidnapped must have been terrible for his mother.

"I'll take the St. Anne too..." Brock added, and Todd nodded. "It will put us in Kanto, and going along with you is probably the best idea." He grinned. "Won't look as suspicious if most of us travel together on the way back there.

"I think we'll go along. It's a longer way to reach Cerulean, through Viridian, then Pewter and Mount Moon, , but we might as well tag along for a little while." Lily added. "It's not much slower than by Vermilion and Saffron."

"We'll get back on our own, though, Erica and I." Sabrina warned. "Getting back by way of Pallet would take way too much time for the two of us." She explained. 

Suddenly, as they were talking, a phone rang. Brock walked up to the room phone, but when he pressed the key that would have normally caused the image of the person on the other end to appear, nothing happened, and the screen remained blank.

"Odd." he whispered.

"Oh! That must be this new cell phone I took with me..."Professor Oak said suddenly. He drew the small machine from the place where it hung at his belt, and took it in his hand. He pressed the contact button, and the face of a police officer appeared. She spoke to the old scientist in a low tone for a while, and Ash could see his mentor's face becoming whiter by the minute as she spoke.

"Thank you officer. I hope you'll be able to catch them." He said finally, his face white like a sheet, then hung up the phone.

"It was the police." He told them, his voice shaky. "It appears that someone came to my laboratory late a few nights ago and stole all the pokemon there...Apparently, the same someone also kidnapped my granddaughter..." he added, his face still very much white.

"WHAT?" the yell came from two mouths, Ash's and Gary's.

"They think it was Team Rocket." The professor continued, oblivious to the expression of stupor on the face of the two young men.

"Team Rocket again..." whispered Misty. "They'll pay..." she added, her voice cold as ice.

____________________________________

The next morning, they left, each heading his or her own way. Sabrina and Erica boarded the Queen of Aqua again, headed this time for Vermilion after some extensive goodbye. They promised to keep in touch, and send in whatever money they could muster to help with the hunt. Tracey, on his own, watched on the pier as the two great ship left, one for Vermilion and one for Pallet, within minutes of each other. Ash and Misty, as well as Brock, Todd, Richie, Lily, Daisy, Violet, Gary and professor Oak filled in the SS. Ann II, as it headed for Pallet.

Tracey was left alone on the pier, watching the rapidly disappearing shadows of the two great ships on the horizon.

The hunt had begun, and the prey would not know it until it was too late.

Chapter 14 : Shared Nightmares

The great ship SS Ann II was heading at full speed toward Pallet, the light from the various windows seeming like a thousand stars all gathered in a singe point in the night sky. She was headed for the harbor of Pallet town, and would reach it within a few days, but she was still in the middle of the ocean. 

In one of the bedroom of the great ship, a single girl was lying on a bed, tossing restlessly in her sleep, her red hair loose around her shoulders. Tears were streaming down from her face, mute testimony of the nightmare she was making. The pillow under her was wet, and that certainly added to her discomfort, making her toss all the more so. 

In her mind, Misty was relieving some of the more terrible scene of the recent ordeal, and they were nothing short of painful...

__________________________

She felt the crude ropes biting in her skin as they held her tightly to the huge tree trunk as she woke up, She knew that soon the tree trunk would head for the saw, and that unless a miracle took place, she would soon die.

Jessie and James called for Ash to surrender, and she tried to say something, but only to be stopped by the gag they had inserted in her mouth. She could not say a thing, could not do a thing. She was tied down to a log, and unless Ash accepted to sacrifice his life's dream, she would soon be dead.

And while in reality, he had accepted to pay that price for her sake, in the shadow-filled world of her nightmares, he instead ordered his Charizard to attack the two bandits - condemning her in the process. 

Just as the saw was about to reach her skull, shadows flickered, and she found herself facing another vision, just as painful, though not because it was showing what could have been, but rather because it demonstrated how much she had lost.

It was a single face, the joyful face of her Togepi, smiling at her, happy as ever. Only now, even though she could see him in the shadow of her mind, he was gone, taken away by the thugs of Team Rocket, stolen to be sold for money. To become a slave, one might say. As she reached out to take Togepi in her arms, to hold him here in this world of dream as she no longer could in the waking world, the shadows cruelly flickered, and another vision was there.

This time, Ash was weeping. It was after they had been captured, and as they were coming up with the realization that no one knew where they were, that no one would ever be able to save them. Of course, someone had managed to save them, but seeing the despair of Ash, the despair she had brought about with her carelessness, she felt like a thousand knifes were stabbing her in the chest.

Shadows flickered yet again.

_________________________________

She woke up screaming, sweat and tears mixing as they rolled down her cheeks, wetting the pillow under her. She rose slowly, unable to go back to sleep, knowing it would be futile as the nightmare would only come back, she curled up on her bed for a while, holding her knees with her arms. It was her fault, really. She had been the one to want to go in that mill, first and foremost. Even though Ash's objections had been jokes more than anything, she should have listened to them. They had been there.

And now, she had almost died for it. Lost most of her pokemon. And had made her best friend, one of the two person she cared the most about in the world, suffer so very much. She briefly wished that Ash would not have surrendered to Team Rocket, that way she would be dead instead of having to live with the guilt of having brought. She continued hugging her knees and weeping, until she heard a knock on the door.

"Yes..." she said slowly, through the tears.

"Misty? It's me, Ash. Can I come in?" his voice asked from just outside, and Misty slowly rose to go open the door. He entered, looking worriedly at her. She briefly noticed that his eyes seemed filled with pain, like hers probably were.

"Is something wrong Misty? You just screamed so loud..." he asked, concern filling his voice.

"No...yes...I don't know..." She slowly began, confused, wanting to share with someone, yet not wanting to bring more pain to Ash.

"Misty...what happened? " he asked her gently. They slowly walked outside, to look at the sea, reflecting the stars and the moon from the night sky.

"I had a nightmare...I kept seeing Togepi's face...The scene at the mill when I woke up and found that I was tied to that log...The time when they told us pikachu was dead." She slowly admitted, knowing he would not stop until she told him, and eager for the comfort only a friend could bring her.

"I know...I've been having the same kind of nightmare myself." Ash admitted, looking at the sea.

"I should have listened to you Ash...the mill was not a good idea..." She slowly told him, reluctant to admit having been wrong to him, but knowing she had to. Ash slowly shook his head in answer.

"Nah...I was only joking, those weren't serious objections...And it was my fault...if I had not decided to go visit this mountain, nothing would have happened...I'm so sorry Misty..." he told her, putting an hand on his shoulder.

"Don't say that it was your fault...it was mine..." she replied. She would not let her take part of the blame that was hers. It was painful enough to bear, and with what she had already done to him, she would not let him do that.

"Well...it was at least partially mine." Ash replied, apparently after ending the discussion quickly. "And now...I feel...wrong." He continued, slowly taking a pokeball from his belt. "It's so unfair that I got three of my pokemon back and you got none." He slowly told her, playing with the pokeball.

"Well, at least I have Seadra and Starmie..." she answered in a half-bitter tone. The loss of her pokemon was more painful than most of the rest of their ordeal, especially that of Togepi, but also that of Psyduck.

Ash smiled at her.

"Well, yeah," he began, "but...I want you to have this..." he said, handing her the pokeball he had been playing with. She looked at it, feeling extremely surprised. Ash was giving her one of his pokemon? That hardly seemed likely, yet there it was...it seemed even less likely that he would have found the money to buy her one...especially since he still owed her a bike. 

She released the pokemon that was inside, and out came Ash's prized Lapras, Nessie. The blue creature looked at the two of them, and Ash made a small smile. 

"Nessie, I want you to obey Misty. She'll take good care of you, and she needs you more than I do now." He slowly told the creature, who nodded, though a few tears were coming from its eyes.

"Oh, Ash, I can't...I mean, you will probably never find another Lapras to catch..." Misty started to say, not willing to accept such a magnificent gift.

"Maybe...but...fair's fair. That way we both have as much pokemon...." he told her, and the slight catch in his voice more than told her how hard it was for him. Yet his eyes seemed determined, and she knew it would be useless to refuse the gift.

"Well...thank you..." she finally said, not knowing what else she could say. They stood on the railing, looking at the sea, and from time to time a small tear from one of their cheek fell in the water below.

_________________________________

As they separated, Ash suddenly realized that for the whole discussion, Misty had been nice to him - and he had been nice to her. Perhaps something good would come out of this whole mess...and maybe they would stop fighting all the time. He would miss his Lapras, but he knew that he had done the right thing - Misty deserved the Lapras, and he knew she would handle Nessie well. 

He went back to his cabin and nightmare-filled sleep, barely resting, and knowing he would be exhausted from lack of sleep by the time they reached pallet, but he could not help it. When he slept, nightmare kept him from rest, and when he fled the nightmare, he would find no sleep.

It was at dusk two days later that the great ship reached Pallet town, the light of the town being like a beacon for the great liner. His mother was waiting impatiently for them on the pier, and when Ash set foot on the ground, she raced toward him and hugged him fiercely.

"Oh, my poor little Ash...don't worry, I'm here...you're safe now" she told him, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders.

"MOM! Please..." he told her, very conscious that his friends were watching him. His mother slowly let him go, and turned toward the others.

"Oh, sorry...hi Misty," she started, smiling at the young red-hair. "Hi Gary, hi Brock," she added, looking at the gym leader, before turning toward Richie, and looking at him for a while, trying to identify him, her eyes revealing that she remembered seeing him before, but had problems recalling where or when, and his name. "Hello...Richie? Isn't that your name?..." she finally said, and Richie nodded. She then turned toward Todd, obviously trying to identify him - and failing miserably.

"I'm Todd, a pokemon photographer." The young man explained, shaking her hand.

"Well, hi Todd." She smiled, then turned toward the others. Before she asked any question, Misty presented her sisters, while Ash smiled, but then the smile vanished as the pain of the events in the mill returned at full force.

They all gathered at his house for some sleep - for those who would be able to get sleep - knowing that the next day they'd all leave, each of them heading on a different path.

Chapter 15 : Danea

From Pallet town, it was two days of walk westward through a dense, evergreen-filled forest to reach the foothills of the Silver Mountains. For a traveler coming out of the forest, such as Ash, Misty, Gary and Richie, the gigantic rocky peaks broke the horizon - there was little sky to the west, most of the horizon being covered by an unbreakable wall of stone. Those few patches of sky they could see seemed to burn with fire as the sun sank behind the mountain.

Beyond the great wall, Richie knew from studying the maps a lot, where the sparkling waters of the bay of Bark, and past that New Bark town and the land of Johto. The land they were going to wander around, trying to make as much noise as possible, luring Team Rocket attention away from the real menace, if his plans worked.

"According to this map, the only way to make it past those mountains is by following Road 26 and 27...then we will find a bay, and on the other side of the bay is Wakaba town." He explained them, pointing out the landmarks on the piece of paper.

"Well, then, let's go." Gary said, his voice filled with steel. His eyes shone with the cold fire of revenge.

"No way!" Richie countered. "Reaching road 26 will be hard. We have to cross some mountains by following little used forest paths." He explained, then suggesting his own plan. "We'd better stop now and get started early tomorrow, so that we can reach it by day." He offered.

After a long discussion, were Richie's carefulness was met by Gary's hunger for revenge on Team Rocket, they finally decided to stop when Misty and Ash pointed out they were too tired to go on, though from what Richie had seen in the last few days, the hours of nightmare-filled sleep would do them little good, if any. The shadow inside them, the memories of the ordeal, were just too strong to be so easily brushed aside.

Yet they stopped there, in a small grove close to the edge of the dense forest, knowing that soon they would be tackling the Silver Mountains, a part of their journey much harder than any they had faced so far. Yet, chances were that of them, only Richie would find the restful sleep that he needed, while the others would be overcome by dark nightmares, or painful, saddening memories. 

Needless to say, on the next morning, as Richie slowly woke them up, they were all tired, having gained no rest from the dark hours of the night. The nightmares had drained the energy of Ash and Misty, who looked like they had not slept in years, while Gary's eyes were red from weeping yet again. For a fleeting instant, Richie wondered how it would be possible for them all to even see the end of the week, to survive their wounds until then.

Yet, despite the lack of sleep, they started their crossing, each of them ready to pull every last ounce of strength they could muster in the war against the Rockets. The old trails on the foothills of the Silver mountain had not been used in years, and rubble had fallen everywhere, yet it remained possible to pass. Ahead, the mountains loomed larger, but below them, the valley of the Viridian River seemed smaller in the distance, and Pallet, beyond the forest, was barely visible.

They walked at the bottom of small canyons, then up small ascending ledge that lead them to the bottom of another canyon. Or some time, the trail would follow the edge of a cliff, and Richie would always watch carefully that none of them stepped too close to the cliff, whether from tiredness or simple will to end it all. He knew if they did, he would have little time to react, but he was ready to try what he could to protect them.

Sometime, they would cross small springs cascading down on the rocky terrain, or some small patch of wood, though unlike other mountains they had seen - such as Mount Kaerlan. - they were far from covered by forests. The air was definitely a bit chiller up at the altitude they had reached - close to a good three thousand feet above ground level - than it had been down bellow, in the middle of the Valley, but it was far from cold, especially with no shadow, and the sun pounding on their back as strongly as it could. Slowly, though, the sun began journeying downward, and the highest snow-capped peaks shone with the fierce light of the glowing star.

As the sun touched the highest summits ahead of them, they finally reached what seemed like an area of relatively even ground, seemingly a long, stretched plateau between the high foothills and the yet higher central mountains of the range. Down the middle of the plateau, a narrow black strip ran, one that could easily be identified as Route twenty-six.

Surprisingly, while they had expected the whole area to be desert, they could easily see from their location a small house away from the road, in the middle of nowhere. Knowing, all of them, that they would need rest before continuing on their trip, and that they were far more likely to rest effectively in a well-built house than outside, under the stars, Richie made a suggestion.

"Why don't we go ask whoever live there if they can take us in for the night?" he asked. his face questioning.

"Why not." Gary shrugged. "Ash and Misty could sure use some rest in a relatively safe place." He explained. And with those few words, they set down, heading toward the house. Richie was in the led, hoping fervently that whoever it was who owned the house would prove to be nice and willing to cooperate. Behind him was Gary, and further behind, Ash and Misty walking slowly, their faces void of any emotions.

Richie slowly knocked on the door, and by the time it slowly opened, Gary had joined him. As the opening became wider, a strange woman appeared. She seemed to be young and old, both at once. While her facial feature were that of a woman in her twenties, perhaps even younger, her pure white hair belied those, and gave her a look that was halfway between that of an old woman and that of a girl barely an adult.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" she asked them, looking at them with suspicion in her eyes.

"We're just travelers." Richie replied in as soothing a tone as he could manage, hoping to calm down the suspicions. "We were in this area, and wondered if you had rooms for us to spend the night...some of our friends are tired." He added.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid..." she began, the cut short as Ash and Misty came closer. While none of the other seemed to notice, Richie definitely saw her eyes glowing blue, the trademark of a psychic using her powers. For a brief moment, Richie reconsidered the whole notion of even asking. That person seemed to be somehow interested in either Ash or Misty, and a psychic, part of a group which usually tended to be very untrustworthy.

"You can come in. I don't have much room for the four of you, but I'll make room. Between my daughter's room and the living room, things should work out." She told them. "Now maybe you could introduce yourselves?" she added.

"My name's Richie Cotter. I'm a pokemon trainer from Viridian City." Richie replied.

"And I'm Gary Oak. From Pallet Town." Gary added, and the steel in his voice seemed somehow sharper.

The white-haired woman nodded, then turned toward the last two of them.

"I'm Misty Waterflower. From Cerulean." Misty said slowly.

"And I'm Ash Ketchum. From Pallet." Ash added, his voice sounding hollow. The woman seemed to react as if she already knew who Richie's friend was, but Richie brushed it aside. She had probably pulled that out of his mind with her psychic powers.

"My name's Danea." She told them. "You'll excuse me if I keep my last name for myself for now. I barely even know you all, so..." she explained.

She led them inside the house, showing them the various important room - living room, kitchen and the bedrooms, among others. She decided, and told them, that Misty would have her daughter's bedroom, and that the three guys would sleep in the living room. After that, they all ate from their own food supplies, none of them wishing to take more than a roof from the night from the woman.

As the sun vanished completely, and the stars covered the sky over them, Misty rose from her seat in the living room, declaring that she was going to get some sleep, and that they should do the same. Before she went, Danea spoke,

"Sleep well! And don't let nightmares trouble your sleep!" she said mysteriously, and once again Richie caught her with her eyes glowing, and this time he also saw her make a strange gesture with her hand, as if cleaning a table with the back of it, sending the crumbs of bread down to the ground As he looked at her, he saw that Misty's eyes had a speculating look as well, and he realized that this time, he was not the only one who had caught Danea in the middle of using her psychic powers.

__________________________

As she headed for the bedroom upstairs, Misty definitely thought that it would be better for everyone if she managed to stay awake...Danea was a psychic, and her earlier encounter with a psychic had not exactly made Misty very trusting of them as a group. Sure, Sabrina had been later part of the group which had rescued them, but she still had trapped them in the size of tiny puppets for a while...

Anyway, she reflected that there would be no point in her trying to sleep, knowing that the nightmare would just prevent her from getting any rest. Yet as she sat down on the bed, the tiredness of getting no rest for nearly a week caught up with her, and within moments, she was in a deep sleep, oblivious to the world around her.

As the morning sunlight streamed in from the windows of the mill, she woke up, and found herself in a better state than she had been since before the kidnapping - well rested, and as she realized that, she also realized that for the whole night, her nightmare had left her alone. That alone seemed odd, and suspicious to Misty. Maybe that Danea woman had used her psychic power to put her to sleep so that she could pull off some kind of trick on Ash and the others? 

Misty hesitated, then decided to put on her clothes and gather her things instead of running down in her pajamas to check what had happened. She did so, then quickly ran down the stairs, finally reaching the living room with her hand on Seadra's pokeball...

And as she looked inside, she felt like being in the bed again, sleeping, would be a very nice thing. Danea, Ash, Gary and Richie were all there already, talking, and looking at some maps of the mountains, and none of them gave anything that something suspicious had happened. Feeling very much ashamed of herself, Misty slowly stopped holding the pokeball, and took a seat next to the others.

"Slept well Misty?" Ash asked, smiling. He seemed well-rested, too, as if he had slept just as well.

"Yeah. You?" she answered, thinking that being a few feet under the earth would be a very fine thing right then.

"Fine." He answered shortly, then returned to the map. "No nightmares, at least."

"Things are going to be easier today than yesterday. We'll be going downhill for most of the trail." Richie told her, turning from looking at the map.

"That's nice." Misty answered, as she took some food from her bag to eat, and watched as the other put what they had taken out of their bags back in them.

She turned toward Danea.

"Well, thanks for giving us a place to sleep." She told her. "And thanks for the help with the nightmares." she added in a lower tone, still feeling a bit ashamed of herself. The others also thanked the woman for her help, though none of them mentioned the nightmares. A few minutes later, they were out of the house, heading southward along the road.

______________________________

Danea watched them go with a weary sigh, then watched with a thin smile as a cloaked man approached the house from the north. He walked up to her, and smiled.

"I just saw a few teens leaving...where they who I think they were?" he asked, a look of curiosity on his face.

"If you mean "him", yes, it was." She replied. "It's been a long time since I last saw you big brother. I missed you." She said, hugging him tightly. The man smiled.

"I missed you too, little sister." He replied, holding her close to him. As child, Danea had been very close to her brother, and that closeness had remained in the many years that had flowed by since them. "Thanks for taking care of them." He added, a small smile on his face.

"Hey, I couldn't miss the chance...he grew up a lot, didn't he? It's been years - twelve of them? - since I last saw him..." she smiled.

"It's been even longer for me, you know..." the man replied, a wistful note in his voice.

"Wishing you hadn't decided to hide things from him?" she asked

"Yeah...but if I had the chance to change things, I'd still do it the same way...it's for the best." He answered, a tone of finality in his voice. His sister knew better than to continue on with the discussion.


	4. Part 4 : Veils of Shadow

Part 4 : Veils of Shadow

Chapter 16 : Johto

Going downhill, it was far easier for them to make a good time, and by time the sun reached the summit of the mountains on its way down from the heavens, they could see the sparkling water of the great Orange Sea at the foot of the cliff that marked the end of Route 26 and the beginning of route 27

There was a small thicket of maple trees near the top of the cliff, and inside the thicket, there was a very small clearing. After watching the water for a while, awed by the beauty of nature yet again, they installed themselves in the grove for the night. They ate some of the bread and cheese they had carried with them from Pallet, and Gary pointed out that they should have taken more, as they would soon run out of food. 

"I don't think that's going to be a problem." Misty replied, smiling.

"Think we can be in New Bark by tomorrow?" Gary replied, feeling a bit worried about the situation. They definitely did not need to go weak from lack of food.

"Yeah. We should be in New Bark tomorrow night." Richie calmly said, after again looking at his map.

Gary nodded. If that was the case, they would be able to start working on their luring Team Rocket very soon. Which in turn, meant that they would find out about the location of their headquarters just as soon. And once they did that...

A vicious grin appeared on his face. Once they did that, Team Rocket would pay for what they had done. He watched silently as the others pulled out their sleeping bag and arranged them on the ground in the small clearing, and then did the same with his. They all went in their bags, and fell asleep to the soothing sound of the sea breeze in the trees.

That night, just like the previous one, they had no problem sleeping, none of them. There were no nightmares, no somber memories to wake them up crying or yelling. Just simple, restful, healing sleep. And so the next morning when they woke up, they were all ready for their last day of walking through the silver mountains..

As the sun slowly rose, they continued paralleling the slightly downward track of Route 27, just like they had paralleled that of Route 26 the day before. The dark ribbon of asphalt stretched ahead of time. To one side, they could see the great cliffs then the sea, to the other, the tall mountains of the central Silver Range. 

Shortly after noon, Ash caught a glimpse of a sparkle far away and right ahead, and he pointed it out to the rest of their group. Gary smiled as he saw for the first time the water of the Bay of Bark, far away in the distance. Yet, according to Richie, the simple fact that they could see it meant that they would reach it within a few hours. As far as Gary was concerned, that was only more good news. 

"Unless something goes wrong, we'll be at New Bark in a few hours." He told them. "Tonight at the latest."

"Great!" Ash said, smiling, and his pikachu nodded from his place on Ash's shoulder. 

"Civilization again..." Misty whispered with a smile. "Danea's place was good, but it wasn't really civilization..."

It didn't take them much effort. Each step they took brought them closer to the shiny waters of the bay, and they all walked as fast as they could. Yet the distance was great, and they reached the bay just in time to witness an amazing display of color as the sun sank slowly under the surface of the great bay. 

The sky seemed to blush and burn as night and day met, orange, red, purple, pink and the last traces of blue joining together to draw an impressive sight. As the sun continued to lower, they looked at the bay again. It was large, so large that there was no way for them to see the other side.

"Next question: how are we going to get past that?" Gary asked them, suddenly realizing that the ferry that ran from one end of the bay to the other was on the other side, and would not come back until the next morning.

"Well, I have a Lap..." Ash started saying, then stopped as he reached for the pokeball he was after, not finding it. For a moment, he seemed to panic until remembrance appeared on his face. "That is to say, Misty has a Lapras...it could ferry us across the bay to Wakaba..." Ash suggested.

"Ash...are you sure you're alright?" Misty asked in mock concern, though Ash didn't seem to notice the mocking tone.

"Yeah... Why do you ask Misty?" Ash replied, oblivious to the tone of her question.

"You just said something intelligent, that's why I asked..." Misty said, grinning.

"Wha?" Ash replied, apparently lost. Gary smiled at the face his friend made.

Misty laughed, then sent out Lapras. The beautiful beast readily understood what they wanted, and carried them across the sizeable bay to New Bark town, swimming toward the sunset. As night settled in, the lights of the city appeared on the other side. With the moon high in the sky, they reached the shore, and all got off Lapras. Misty recalled the great creature, and they all stood on the shore for a while.

"Where do we go now?" Misty asked.

"My grandfather told me about one of his friend who lives around here. Sebastian Elm, another pokemon researcher. Maybe we should go see him?" Gary offered them in way of suggestion, and they immediately approved the idea.

The Elm laboratory was not hard to find, no harder to locate than his grandfather's in Pallet town, Gary reflected as they reached the door to the great building. He knocked on it twice, and a middle aged man opened the door. 

"Hello...What do you want?" he asked them.

"Are you Professor Elm?" Gary asked, hoping that everything would go fine.

"Yes, I am...and you are? Wait...I think I know you...You are the grandson of my friend Samuel, right?" he asked suddenly. 

Gary nodded quickly, smiling as he did so. 

"Samuel told me you'd probably be coming around here sometime soon, and he told me about what you are up to. He also asked me to see if I could help you somehow." The man stated. "Though he had not much to offer as to suggestion of how I was to help." He added, his face troubled. "He also sent a package for you Gary." The professor added, as if suddenly remembering. He led them inside.

There, he handed Gary a long box-like package that was rather heavy. There was a letter with it, and Gary wondered again what it was that his grandfather was sending him. He opened the letter.

Gary, after you left I realized that you might have some use for this on your quest

that's why I am sending it to you. It has been in the family for a number of generation, and I know

you'll be able to make a good use of them. It is the Daisho - the set of sword, I know the word

is no longer common - that belonged to one of your ancestors. I thought you might have some use

for weapons, considering you are really fighting a war. Use them well!

He smiled and opened the box, revealing two perfectly balanced swords, one shorter than the other, both of them slightly curved and with a painstakingly crafted handle. The two blades seemed to be made of pure crystal rather than metal. He took them both in hand, and swung them a few time before taking the two scabbards, hooking them to his belt, and sliding the two blades in place. Meanwhile, the professor went to the phone, and dialed a number. As he hung down the phone shortly after, he turned toward them, and spoke again.

"Well, since I wasn't too sure how to help, and I know that you have yet to eat, I decided I might as well call for some pizza for all of us." He explained what he had been doing. 

"Thank you professor!" Ash said, smiling.

After they ate the pizza, it was not too hard for any of them to find some sleep, and soon enough they were all deep in slumber, waiting for the next morning to come, and their quest to continue

___________________________________________

Brock stood beside the computer while Todd sat down on the chair, moving the mouse seemingly randomly, magnifying some details, clearing the picture, and generally doing a lot of other things Brock couldn't even begin to understand. 

"Man, you know that stuff." He told his friend at some point as the young man continued focusing on different parts of the pictures that had been taken by the few security cameras at the Oak laboratory during the raid. It had been Todd's idea, this using his imaging software to try to find some clues about the Rocket raid on the laboratory, and while they had not found any new element, they had managed to eliminate a number of possibilities. For example, they already knew for a fact that the three culprits were not the other rocket duo, Butch and Cassidy. 

"Yeah, I use it a lot." He replied smiling. "Wait! I think I got something!" he finally said, focusing the view on a tiny point of the picture. "Those weren't Rocket." He stated, pointing at the fact that the red R, instead of being sewed to the uniform, appeared to be made of tape stuck there in a hurry.

"Crap." Brock swore. "Those were our only track." He added.

"I know. Looks like we'll have to look somewhere else..." Todd replied, no happier than Brock at what he had just found.

"Yeah...I think we should go to Viridian first. When Ash challenged the gym leader there, he fought against Jessie and James - they were assuming the role of gym leaders, and they had some of the leader's pokemon." Brock reflected, remembering his travels with Ash and Misty the year before.

"Guess that's a good idea." Todd nodded. "We'll go there, then."

_______________________________

The doors of the Rocket headquarters were unguarded as Damian and Elayne stepped in, and that in itself was enough to make both of them extremely suspicious. They both drew one of their pokeball, ready to send the pokemon held inside.

They walked warily through the deserted halls, until they reached the door to Giovanni office. It was unguarded, and wide open, that they could see as they approached it from far away. They slowed down, both of them avoiding making any noise, and crept closer to the office. The steel walls seemed very much oppressive to the young man as they did, as if something terrible was happening.

As they neared the doors, they heard voices from inside the office. One was his father's, outraged. The other two, he had never heard, or maybe only a little, before, and could not identify. He took quick peek inside to see his father, faced by two masked Rocket members. In a pool of blood near Giovanni's feet, his favorite persian was on the ground, dead.

"You'll never be able to take control of Team Rocket." Giovanni snarled at them. "The others won't be fooled by any of your tricks." He added.

"Oh, really? We already convinced half of Team Rocket that you were turning mad, acting strangely." The man in the pair attacking his father said.

"And once we have you out, we'll just say you were the imposter, and that our "fake" one is the real Giovanni. And they'll all believe us, because you've been acting so much out of character recently." The woman said, and Damian was convinced that under her mask, she was grinning.

"What? What are you talking about?" Giovanni asked, sweat running down his face.

"Ordering to threaten to kill hostages to get to the pokemon of someone else, ordering people actually killed...that's not like you at all." The man stated, and Damian knew that he was smirking.

"I didn't do that!" Giovanni replied, panic appearing in his voice.

"Damian? I think we should get out now before they spot us..." Elayne whispered, her hand on his shoulder. "We'll come back later for your father" she added.

"Right...I guess you're right..." Damian answered, then followed her outside, still feeling very much like a traitor about leaving his father behind.

Chapter 17 : First Strike

They decided not to leave New Bark immediately, and instead to take some more time to rest before heading on their quest to lure Team Rocket out in the open. Those three days were indeed restful, visiting the various parks of the small town, talking with Professor Elm, and working on plans of how to make their presence felt, and of how to lure the criminals out in the open. They played, also, whether it be tickles fight, or simple pokemon battles. Gary and Ash fought three of those, one on each day. The first went to Gary and his Gyarados against Ash's Pidgeot, the second went to Ash when his Pikachu fought against Gary's Eevee, the third was a tie between Arcanine and Charizard.

But like all good things, their vacation in New Bark soon ended, and it was time again to head on the road, to fulfill their oath. Misty sighed as they turned away from the town, heading toward the unknown. Now that she as free of the nightmare, the oath they had taken didn't seem such a good idea...except that she did want to get back at them, both for the kidnapping, and for the murder of Duplica. 

It took them two days, two long days on the road, to reach the next town. The land around them was fairly hilly, caught between the Silver Range to the east, the western half of the Moon Range to the north, and the Alph range to the west, in the Azalean peninsula. Great stretches of woods were everywhere, maples and pines mostly, but here and there there were some other trees, birch and oak appearing randomly.

While Cherrygrove, the first town they reached after leaving New Bark, was much larger than New Bark itself, it was a town that was way too quiet for it to be even an interesting stop. They barely took the time to rest the night in the local pokemon center, before deciding to go forward. All that they had heard indicated that Violet, the next town on the road they were following, was for the most part as large as Cherry Grove, but with much more activity - ancient ruins, a tower famous across the world for it's architecture, and many other things. 

The road from Cherrygrove to Violet was just as hilly and hard as the road from New Bark to Cherrygrove had proven to be. Except that the distance was greater, so it took them even longer to reach the town. After five days of hard walking under the rainy clouds, they were still far from it. The storm had not broken yet, but they all knew it would soon. For the umpteen thousand time, Misty looked at the sky worriedly. If only they could reach Violet before the storm would break...but there seemed to be little chance of that.

And indeed, well they were still at the very least two days away from Violet, a violent storm broke. The wind howled through the trees, as drops of rain splattered on the ground all around them. The violent crash of thunder became a common companion as they looked for a place to spend the time until the storm abated. 

Yet there didn't seem to be any shelter anywhere nearby. There were no houses in the empty countryside, and the hills were not the kind likely to have any caves in them. The only possible chance would be the part of the Silver Range that jutted out from the main bulk, like a mountain sticking out of a plain. It was not too far from them, barely an hour if they ran. Which, of course, is what they did. They reached it a few hours later, and once there, it was surprisingly easy to find a cave.

As the rain continued drumming on the flank of the great mountain they were in, Gary took some of the wood he had carried safely in his backpack - much to Misty's delight - and set up a small fire. They gathered around it, eager for the warmth of the fire to dry their sodden clothes. As the fire warmed her, Misty could not help but notice the puddle of water formed at her feet by the water dripping from her hair, and her clothes.

"If you guys can look elsewhere, I think I'll go change clothes." She said, blushing. The other quickly nodded, and went to look elsewhere, as she walked deeper in the cave to put on some clothes. Soon she was back with them, in dry clothes instead of the sodden rag she had worn before _Well...not rag, really...but they felt like rag_ she corrected herself, a slight smile on her lips. The other guys quickly did the same as she had done, and soon they were all sitting around the fire in dry clothes, their hair still dripping wet, but outside that, much more comfortable than they had been.

_______________________________________

It took three long days for the storm to abate, three long days during which they were trapped in the cave with nothing much to do. They waited, simply, trying to plan and rest as much as they could, while outside the crash of thunder filled the air, wind howled in fury, and the constant sound of rain falling on the ground continued.

"I wonder where is Team Rocket?" wondered Misty, as they waited. "It's not like them to leave us alone for days..."

"Well, maybe they are on vacation..." Ash commented, grinning. Unfortunately, Misty, already in a bad mood from the rain and the delay, did not catch his smile - and reacted accordingly.

"I DID NOT ASK FOR YOUR STUPID COMMENTS!" she yelled at the top of her lung, then stopped when she realized everyone was looking oddly at her. "Uh...sorry..." she added, grinning sheepishly.

Richie had to turn aside to avoid them seeing the small smile on his lips. Misty would have exploded at him if he had seen him smiling after she had made a fool of herself. The rain continued to fall, and as he looked outside and marveled at the way nature could be both beautiful and deadly at once. The same rain that seemed so beautiful from inside the cave would easily claim lives if it created floods or land slides. 

It was on the third day that the rain finally abated, and that they were able to leave the cave and head for Violet City at last. As they walked outside under the still-heavy clouds, they couldn't help but feel that they would need luck to get to Violet before the rain broke out again.

Fortunately, this time their feelings were wrong, and in fact the on the second day, the sky was almost completely clear as they approached the shining buildings that made the city of Violet. The towering buildings of glass and concrete glittered in the afternoon sun, and birds flew over the town, singing as they did so.

__________________________

As they approached the city, Ash's eyes were drawn to an old-looking tower, with the slanted roof that was characteristic of the kind of construction found in the older areas of Johto and Kanto. It seemed to be a shrine or a temple of some sort, the kind of place people visited to worship the local spirits in the old days. At least that's what professor Oak had told him these places were used for. 

"Hey, look at that tower..." Richie suddenly said. "Maybe we could go visit it. I heard about it, and it's quite famous. Chances are the rockets will have a few people around there, so if we make a show of looking for them..." He left it hanging.

"Not a bad idea." Gary nodded thoughtfully. His eyes were still as empty as they had been since the day they had left the mill a couple of weeks before.

"I don't..." Misty started, but was interrupted by Richie again.

"It would work well for what we are trying for." Richie smiled at them.

_________________________________

The great flying beast landed in front of the Viridian gym, and it's sole passenger jumped off its neck, his black cloak swirling in the strong wind that failed to affect his short dark hair. As he stood before the lair of his once-time rival Giovanni, Lance allowed himself a thin smile. Very little was as it seemed in Kanto. Team Rocket pretended to be a criminal organization that kidnapped and sold pokemon, but that, he knew, was only a cover. He had only a little idea of what the whole deal really was, but it was enough.

And just as Team Rocket was not what it seemed, neither was the position of the Kanto chief of state - Lance himself. The working arrangement he had reached with Giovanni was indeed a good thing, as it caused a dramatic increase in the numbers of thugs caught each years - those real bandits that where a threat, which would always be in on those "failed" Rocket plans that landed many members in prison for a long time.

Yes, the whole of Kanto would be surprised to hear about that...as surprised as he had been to hear about pokemon trainers being kidnapped by Team Rocket. Especially with one of them a gym leader and the other a well-known trainer. And far less surprised than how surprised he had been when he had learned that one of the trainers who had tried to rescue their friends had been shot and killed. 

Something had definitely gone awry with Team Rocket, and he would talk to Giovanni and find out what it was. One of the gym guard at the entrance - who was at least sane enough not to wear any open sign of belonging to Team Rocket.

"What do you want?" the guard asked, looking at him, then blinking. "Oh! Sorry Lance-sama! I didn't recognize you right at first. Please come in. I assume you are here to see Giovanni-sama?" The man asked, realizing that this was no ordinary visitor coming for business or for a gym battle.

"Yes." Lance's answer was short and void of emotions.

They walked through the great hallways of the Viridian Pokemon Gym. Paintings hung from the walls, of the great rocket leaders and members past and present, though very few know that's what it was, as those were the Rocket members who had never been caught by the police, nor even suspected. And since they were all somehow related to the Viridian gym - which had a tradition of being in Rocket's hands - no one bothered to ask questions. Of course, those were the hallways of the "corporate" part of the gym - not the part that a normal trainer would see on his way to collecting a badge. 

The guard stopped before a great oaken door that led to, Lance knew for having visited the place a few time, Giovanni's office. The door slowly swung open, and the two of them stepped inside. 

"The Kanto president, sir." He announced in a meek voice. Among the rocket, attracting the wrath of Giovanni was a one-way trip to jail guaranteed - unless the man had other plans for you. Lance smiled slightly at the man who had in turn been childhood friend, teen years rival, early adulthood mortal enemy, and finally a good working partner, and a friend, though far from a close one. He was a few years older than Lance, and looking older than he was, a few months away from thirty-seven while Lance himself was only thirty-three, and looking much younger than he truly was, something that he and his sister had in common.

"Lance, old friend!" Giovanni smiled. "So good to see you!" he added, yet for some reason Lance suspected something was wrong. This did not sounds like his friend...not at all...

"Giovanni. I'm not here to have fun." Lance replied icily. "I've heard about what happened at Leman island. Would you care to explain? Kidnapping and murder are not covered by our deal." He added, his eyes as agate while he spoke. 

"I know." Giovanni answered, a bitter tone to his voice. "It was the work of an impostor." He added, and his eyes seemed to be filled by betrayal...again something that Lance found highly suspect. Normally, betrayal and that kind of thing would have Giovanni hard, and his eyes would be just like Lance's were. Not hurt. This was not like Giovanni at all... "We caught him, but he managed to give a few fake orders...I believe the events at Leman Island were related to that." Giovanni added, this time with a note of sadness in his voice.

__

Yeah, right. As far as I can tell, the impostor, if there's any, is in front of me. Lance thought bitterly. Whoever was in charge of this masquerade really underestimated him. Still, he nodded lightly, knowing that taking action at this point would do no good.

"Thank you for your time Giovanni. I will call you again one of these days." He said casually, shaking the actor's hand, then left, walking back to the guard and then being escorted outside to fly his dragonite back to the league headquarters.

______________________

"Whew. That was a close call." Butch muttered as he pulled off the mask he had been using for the whole meeting. "I had no real idea that the two were actually friend..." he muttered under his breath as Cassidy appeared from a nearby room.

"Closer than you would believe Butch. Hypno did some mind-reading on him while you were talking. He know you aren't the real Giovanni." She told him, and Butch felt like cursing. All this work and sweating, all the stress he had had to take, and it had not been enough? 

"Guess that means we'll have to...dispose of him then." He said with a bleak smile.

"Definitely." Cassidy added, a vicious smile on her otherwise beautiful face. "Though I don't think he's going to go running around talking about an impostor leading Team Rocket." She added with a wicked smile on her face. "Not the kind of thing a chief of state is supposed to know."

Chapter 18 : Rising Flame

The bright morning sun rose slowly over the still asleep city of Violet as the birds woke up and started their daily chirping. As the celestial disk rose up above the land, bringing light to a world once flooded by darkness, Ash and his friend slowly woke up, rising from their bed in the two bedroom they occupied in one of the city's best hotel.

It was a day like the previous one. The sky was clear, and no cloud could be seen for a thousand miles in any direction - east, west, south or north. From the window of their room near the top of the hotel, at the end of an hallway, Ash could look through window that would let him see south, east, and west. The view was clear for many mile, aside for the bulk of the building they had seen the day before, that one Sprout tower as he had heard the inhabitants call it. 

The view, in fact, was not only clear but absolutely stunning. Beyond the tow to the east vast expanse of forest could be seen, then the stark outline of the outstretched western arm of the Silver range, with the impressive bulk of Mount Silver itself visible in the distance, standing nearly twice as tall as any of the surrounding mountains. To the west, the vision was completely different, that of a great rolling plain for a start, with some patches of wood, then another grey wall rising against the horizon, the Alph mountains, famous for the ancients ruins that were found in them. Between the city and the plain, the Ecruteak river ran, its waters sparkling as the light of the sun hit them, as well as the great bridge that allowed one to cross it. As he turned to the south, he could follow the water of the river, as it joined with the great blue expense of the Gulf of Azalea, which shone fiercely under the fires of the sun. It was really a splendid sight to behold, and Ash noticed that his friends seemed to agree, as they joined him one by one as they rose.

They went down to the hall of the hotel, and then to the small restaurant that was part of it. They quickly ate the breakfast that was included with the price of the room - eggs and bacons, with some juice, and then walked outside, toward Sprout Tower.

It barely took them a few minutes to reach it, at the speed they were walking at. They were all eager to finish what they had begun, and if they could lure Team Rocket out in the open, there was always the off chance of capturing one of them and getting him or her to admit the location of their headquarters. That would work pretty effectively, Ash had to admit to himself. And getting one of them to admit would be enormously satisfying, in a certain sense, after all that they had been put through.

Surprisingly, seeing as it was a quite famous location, the general vicinity of the tower seemed rather deserted, in fact completely empty. They walked closer to the door, and on Gary's suggestion decided to do the visiting that they all itched to do now, instead of later, so that they would all be ready to lure Team Rocket later in the day, when people would come around to visiting the tower.

The great wooden door of the ancient tower swung open easily as Richie pushed them, and they had no problem at all entering. The first floor of the tall, ancient tower was just as empty as the vicinity had been, and they could not find even a trace of a single living soul, despite extensive searching of the first floor. Surprised that there were not even monks around there to take care of the old building, Ash watched around, a little confused.

"I thought there would at least be some people in there..." he muttered.

"So did I." Richie agreed, and his eyes were painted with unvoiced suspicions. "Something's wrong here." He added.

"You think the Rockets might already be here?" Gary questioned him. Ash shuddered at the thought. The last time he had blundered in a rocket outpost...

"Might be. Doesn't...feel...like it, though." Richie answered, somehow unable to voice his thought in a clearer way, or so it seemed to Ash at least.

"Well, Rocket or not, if there's a chance it might be them, we might as well get at it and find out." Misty stated, apparently bored with the talking.

"Right." Gary nodded, letting no emotions in his voice, but moving his hand to the handle of one of the swords his grandfather had sent him. As he did so, his eyes became dim for a while, as if he was completely lost in thought. Ash wondered at what was happening to his friend, not sure if it was good, bad or neither. Then, barely a minute after it had started, and has suddenly as it had begun, the strange spell seemed to end, and Gary was back to normal. Ash shrugged it off, as he realized his friend had reasons enough to be upset by mentions of Team Rocket. They had, after all, killed the girl he loved.

They slowly climbed up the stair to the second floor, careful to avoid making noise, knowing that if they did too much noise, whoever it was that waited for them upstairs would hear them coming and have some nasty surprises waiting. 

The second floor was, after a thorough search, revealed as equally empty, yet while on it Ash felt a magnifying of the sense of being watched he had felt while on the first floor, as if the eyes that had watched him back there had been joined by more.

And yet more eyes joined the ones from the first and second floors as he reached the third floor. Apparently, he was not the only one feeling the eyes, as he could see Gary tightening his grip on the blade of the longer of the two curved swords.

Yet, to their surprise, the third and final floor that was so high above ground because of the height of each floor was just as empty as the other two had been. Empty, with not a single trace of anyone visiting it for days before.

"I just don't get it." Richie confessed. "This is starting to sound really fishy...remind me of those old tales of secret passages." He shook his head slightly. "We got to really think...where is everyone?" he asked them.

"I don't have the slightest idea Richie." Misty answered. "This sounds so...eerie..." she said. "Maybe we should get out..."

Ash slowly ran his hand along the carved wood that mad the border of one of the windows. Outside, the world was clam, and everyone seemed to ignore the general vicinity. No one was coming close to the tower, except for a few kids playing around in the lawn of an house nearby, the closest living souls that he could see.

"I'd feel safer if we were outside." Gary said suddenly, in a voice not his own, as his eyes took that blank look they had had when he had first put his hand on the sword a few minutes earlier outside.

"Gary?" Richie asked, staring in surprise.

"What happened?" he asked, his eyes snapping back to reality as suddenly as they had earlier.

"Forget it." Richie said simply, as he looked at all of them. "I don't know about you all, but I think we should wait a little longer before leaving. Either someone will come and explain everything, or else we'll find some clue as to what's up here..." he countered the point that Gary had made without knowing he was making it.

"I...I think you're right Richie." Ash finally stated, torn between the very bad feeling he was having about the whole thing, and the need to know more about the current mystery.

_______________________

Misty sighed, not voicing her opinions about the idea of staying there as they looked around for more clues. Truth to be told, she mostly agreed with the mysterious voice that had taken control of Gary for a moment. But Ash and Richie had decided not to go, and for once she didn't feel like arguing with Ash over something that did not matter that much.

She walked around for a while, trying to keep her mind focused her mind focused on looking for clues, yet strangely unable to do so. The air of the upper floor was getting warmer rapidly...in fact far too fast for it to be just the natural increase in heat outside. Almost as if...

"Smoke!" Gary suddenly yelled, pointing at the entrance of the stairway that lead to the second floor. Thick volutes of grey, dark smoke were coming out, clear testimony of the fire that surely raged in the lower levels. 

"We have to get out!" Ash shouted.

"Yeah, but how?" Richie asked. "The lower levels are burning, and we only have your pidgeot to fly us around...not to mention those windows looked very solid to me. 

"Well...I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?" Gary asked. "If we stay up here, we'll get roasted alive. If we try going down, there's a chance that we'll make it..." he told them quietly. There was no fear in his voice, as if he was welcoming the opportunity of dying. 

Gary in the lead, they started going down the stairway. He held a pokeball in his hand, ready to throw it, though Misty had no idea what was the pokemon inside. Richie and Ash went in just after, and she herself decided to go last. Fortunately, while there was smoke in the stairwell, smoke that made their eyes dry and forced them to hold their breath for as long as they could. As they reached the second floor, they stopped for a brief moment to look around them. One of the hallways lead to the stairway, and that one seemed clear, luckily. The one that lead to the other side, however, was filled with a fiery red glow, and the crackling noise coming from that side made it more than clear that the fire was that way - at least some of it. The smoke from that side moved along the hallway, and up the stairwell. They rapidly cleared the vicinity of the stairs' door, toward the other, less smoke-filled hallway that lead toward the first floor stairs.

The stairs were surprisingly clear of smoke as they walked down them, or rather ran down them. However, as they reached the lowest floor, a disheartening sight appeared. The fire was in two different hallways, and coming closer with each passing second to reaching the hallway that lead outside. They ran as fast as they could, still in the same order that they had been earlier. 

Gary went first, using his arms to shield his face, then Ash and Richie doing the same, racing as fast as they could. 

And then, just as Misty was about to make it too, disaster struck. One of the supporting beam overhead, its support weakened by the fire and by age, crashed between her and the door. She recoiled as the flame grew, blocking her only path of escape, and desperately watched as the others turned to see her slowly rising to her feet as the fire came closer to her on each side. She rapidly called out her Seadra to extinguish the flame, but even that seemed to do nothing as the fire did not even sizzle where the water struck it, as if some outside will was powering it and commanding it to ignore the water.

She felt her life slowly drained away from her by the heat, she was weakening with each passing second. She recalled Seadra and threw hew pokeball through the wall of flame to Ash, Gary and Richie still frozen on the other side. 

"Get out!" she tried to yell, though the coughing sound from the smoke that was starting to get to her prevented her from really making any meaningful noise. "Run!" she added, though she was already choking.

At that moment, a chunk of wood, or some other such fell from the roof, at least as far as she could guess in the two seconds of consciousness she had after the whatever it was hit her behind the head. She fell to the ground.

______________________________

Ash felt himself pulled toward the door as his eyes remained locked on Misty, struggling to find a way out on the other side of the wall of fire. He struggled as best as he could, but Gary's grip was too strong. And then, they were out of the tower, and Misty was out of his sight...

And unless they got extremely lucky, out of his life forever as well...And somehow, despite all the taunting, all the fighting, despite how they had behaved toward each other for all of the two years they had been travelling together...

Despite that, he just couldn't even begin to imagine the days ahead without Misty at his side. Silently, he prayed for a miracle that would save her, would allow him to keep the girl who had been his best friend for the last two years at his side.

And then, with a sinister noise, a loud, cracking kind of noise, the tower fell down. It collapsed on itself, as the flames roared, even brighter than before. And as the tower collapsed, crushing Misty if she was still alive and Ash's last feeble hope that she would somehow survive, he collapsed also, falling on the ground, and weeping.

Besides him, looking at the tower, Gary seemed to be filled with a deep inner rage. "Duplica...and now Misty. When will it end?" he murmured, so softly that Ash barely heard him.

Chapter 19 : Misty's Funeral

Ash was weeping; hot, damp droplet of waters running down his cheeks then falling on the rocky shore, then slowly flowing down in a small trickle toward the lake in front of him. The exact same thing he had been doing without stop, even when eating or trying to sleep, ever since the flames had destroyed the ancient sprout tower, taking Misty with them. At the moment the collapsing tower had ended any hope that Misty would ever come back, Ash had felt as if the most important part of his life was being torn away from him. Torn away from his own soul by the uncaring hand of fate, and never to be recovered even if he was to live a hundred thousand years. 

It was only as the crashing tower had taken her forever away that he hard realized just how much the young red-hair had meant to him, to his well being. How much of an essential part of his own life she had become, as if they had been two side of the same soul rather than two separate soul. Now, of course, it was much too late to realize that, and even more so, it was too late to tell her. They would never get to talk together again, not in a million years. He was condemned, just like Gary. Except that in Gary's case, it was even worst- in his case, it had been love. For Ash, all it had been was a very strong friendship, one that he had thought would last forever. Or was it worst? Somehow, to Ash, it seemed like there was no pain that could compare to the one he was feeling inside him at that very moment.

The pain of loosing the one person that had meant so much to him. Though he had other friends - Gary and Richie among them, as well as Brock and Tracey - they somehow just weren't the same thing. Misty was Misty, the one friend that he really could not loose, the one friend that he would not go on without. And of course, as fate's cruel ways would have it, she was the one friend he had lost to uncaring destiny.

A slight rustling sound in the grass barely audible over the noise of his weeping was his only warning that someone was coming. He turned to face the concerned face of Gary, who seemed really worried about him - something Ash could understand, in a way. Gary had lost as much, if not more that he had lost, or so Ash's logic told him. And Ash was the only one who welcomed the young man as a true friend, instead of seeing him as an arrogant braggart. And with only one friend in a world that had turned against him, Gary certainly had reasons enough to be worried when that friend seemed on the verge of giving up entirely on life.

He sat down besides him without a word, simply putting an hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture for a while. Ash continued weeping, letting his tears fall on the rock to cascade down to the lake. The sparkling water shone as the sun stood high in the sky...

The water. It had been Misty's element, her home, to a certain extent. The place she wanted to understand, to master, to be part of. 

With a sob, he curled up on the ground, wishing that death would somehow come right there, right then, to end the hell his life had become.

____________________________

Gary sighed sadly as he watched his best and last friend curl up, as if he was waiting for death. As far as Gary knew, the relationship between Ash and Misty had been nothing more than friendship, yet Ash's reaction certainly seemed to indicate otherwise, as if they had been closer to being in love than to being friends.

Yet, everyone who knew them agreed that they had just been friends, that they were not boyfriend and girlfriend. But then, how could he explain that Ash reacted in a stronger way to Misty's death that he had reacted to Duplica's?

"You loved her, didn't you." He asked of his suffering friend, watching him with pity in his eyes. To see someone like Ash, who was, after all, a nice person, suffering like this...

Ash slowly turned his face toward him, his eyes tear-filled. For a long moment, he didn't answer, as if searching within himself for the truth.

"I...I'm not sure...I...never really thought about it that way..." he started, talking through his sobbing. "I think...maybe...I think I loved her." He finally admitted, confirming what Gary had thought. "I never told her...and now...she's...she..." he stopped talking and curled up again, weeping even more. Gary sighed. Now at least he knew why it was hitting Ash so hard. It had been more than friendship, and far from helping, the fact that the love had never been let out in the open was actually making things harder.

The week since Misty had died had been a long one, a too long one, and far from making things easier, the passage of each day brought Ash closer to the edge of despair. Gary felt so powerless as he watched his friend plummeting down the dark abyss of depression. He barely slept, and when he did, only for a few hours of fitful sleep, barely ate, and when he actually could be convinced to eat, he would only take a few tiny bite of bread, then let the remnants in his plate and go away to weep. He very obviously no longer cared about life, which in turn was hitting Gary very hard.

And it was not Ash alone, far from it. His pokemon seemed to be reacting much the same way, pikachu first of all, but the others also, even his big bully of a Charizard. Richie was taking care of them, but keeping them all from doing anything rash was like trying to keep the babies in a nursery from fighting each others over a toy. Of course, the fact that their trainer had apparently forgotten all about them certainly didn't help them to deal with the crisis, as he seemed no longer to care if they were even alive or dead.

With a weary sigh, he put his hand on Ash's shoulder again, resolute to give another try at cheering him up, even if it was almost certainly doomed to fail.

"Ash...I know just how hard this is" he started, as the pain of Duplica's death struck him again, "but you just can't give up..." he added, his voice pleading.

"Why not?" Ash asked bitterly, the sadness apparently turning in some form of resentment, at least party. But it was still very much present, both as sadness and as resentment. "No matter what we do, we always die" he added sighing fatalistically. "If you're lucky you get to go first, before those you love. If not, then you get to see all your friends go away..." the sad answer came. "I don't think I care much for the idea of being last to leave." He said, slowly shaking his head, staring at the lake.

"Ash...I thought you were the kind who kept their promise, remember?" Gary said desperately as he knew he was fighting a loosing battle.

"So?" Ash asked blankly.

"You swore to hunt down and destroy Team Rocket. Are you going to go back on that oath?" Gary asked bitterly, a bit of anger in his voice. He was not really angry at Ash, but rather trying to get Ash angry so that he would react. 

"I don't care..." Ash replied, infinite sadness in his voice, showing Gary just how much his last attempt had failed.

Without a word, the young man rose, and headed back toward the hotel, clearly putting an end to the chat. Gary sighed as he watched his friend walking away, and could only hope Ash would have the courage to face life long enough for them to defeat Team Rocket.

__

And then...once they are done for...once that's done, then we'll both be free to die.

__________________________

Brock sighed sadly once again as the sounds of the flight attendant voice of the great jet woke him up suddenly. Around him, Sabrina, Erica, Lily, Violet and Daisy were talking while Todd was waking up from a few hours of sleep they had decided to take upon leaving the Cerulean airport bound for the Goldenrod airport.

For a brief moment, as he looked at the five beautiful girl, he almost thought that he had to be in heaven, then had a weary, extremely sad sighs as the harsh reality came back to him. _I'm not the one in heaven...that's Misty _he reflected sadly. _She's gone and she isn't coming back_ he sighed sadly yet again.

"Ladies and Gentleman, please fasten your seatbelts, we are beginning our final approach to the Goldenrod Airport." The voice of the flight attendant said, maybe the same message that had woken him and Todd up a few seconds earlier. He quickly did so, then resumed his thinking. Misty had not been as close to him as she had been to Ash, of course, but she had been a good friends all the same, despite her tendency to prevent him from talking with girls. She and Ash had made an odd but efficient pair, and he could only imagine how much her death had hurt Ash. Yet another sigh escaped her lips. Life was so unfair.

As soon as they got off the airplane and past the customs agents with their luggage, Erica lead them to one of the car rental stands in the airport, and started talking quickly to the man there. After a few hours of her fast talking and negotiating, they were all in a car heading for Violet city, with the young woman driving.

_______________________

Ash looked out of the window, feeling empty, looking at a world that had once been so colorful and finding only the darkest shades of gray and black, the gloom of despair and the shadow of death. It was already the time for the funeral, as all of those who were supposed to come had reached Violet, and were ready. The Professor Oak was there, as well as Misty's sisters, Ash's mother, and many others they had met or helped in their travels. Misty's status as a gym leader had even convinced some more important persons to join the ceremony, in the form of a representative of the Kanto elite 4, an old woman with gray hair and a riddled face, walking with a stick to support her.

And just as Misty had been so special, her funeral would be far from usual. That came first from the fact that there was no body to bury or incinerate - as it had already been incinerated. Instead of a coffin with the body inside, what they would have would be a silver jar filled with ashes from the burned tower. It was, they all agreed, the best that could be done since no traces of her body remained. And because Misty had been so close to water, because it had been as an home to her, instead of setting the jar safely away after the funeral, it's content would be emptied in the waters of the gulf of Azalea from the bridge of the ship where the ceremony would take place. 

But somehow, even the special care that was being taken for her did nothing for Ash. According to everyone he had heard, things like that showed to the most stricken ones that they weren't alone in mourning the one who had passed away, but in Ash's case it did nothing of the sort. It only made the pain of the loss deeper, more acute, ever harder to resist. 

When the priest, after a long speech, invited Misty's friend to go forward and speak, Ash did not, knowing his throat would not let him say a thing.. He remained seated, tears still running down his cheeks, watching the world around him that had lost all meaning. As the tears came, so did memories of Misty and their days together. Her red hair that was so beautiful when she would let it loose on her shoulders. Her sparkling aqua eyes. Even when she had been angry with him, even when she had made his life impossible, he had never wanted for her to be gone from his life forever. He had only wanted to have her at his side as a friend as long as possible. She had been a very close, very trusted friend. Maybe one day she would have become more than a friend.... The admittance had came strangely enough, a simple realization when Gary had suggested it might be so...many others had made the same suggestion before, but it was only now that Misty was dead that he realized how true it was on his side. 

Each of Misty's sisters, all of them with a few tears running down their cheeks, in turn talked about the young red-hair, how she had shaped their lives and transformed them forever. Brock, Richie and Todd added their comments, and they too were weeping, though some of them had barely known her for a short while before she had died. As the day died in a fiery wave of colors to the west over the Alph mountains, the jar was opened and its content released in the water.

And Ash wished that he did not have his loyalties to his friends keeping him apart from following Misty, and ending the pain once and for all.

Chapter 20 : Shadow Awakened

A faint, slightly chilly breeze stirred the still dark green leaves of the great trees around the great cliffs that dominated the gulf of Azalea. Though elsewhere in the world autumn had already begun to make its touch felt and to bring the crimson and the gold to the trees, the region if Violet was still largely unaffected. Here and there, there were a few traces of red and gold in some of the trees, but with those few exceptions, the region was still very green. Yet the birds, the pidgey first, the others later, had already started their flight south toward the orange islands or even further down, where they would spend the winter.

The light of the noon sun bathed the area with a bright, almost aggressive glow. But standing where he was, on the top of one of the cliff that dominated the gulf, Ash did not notice any of that, nor did he notice the shout of his friends looking for him. His eyes were still fixed on the exact spot where the content of the jar had been slowly released in the warm water, taking the one girl he had been in love with forever away. He had never realized how much he had loved her until that very moment where she had died, but now…

Now there was no denying it, as he had realized during the funeral. He had been in love with Misty, very much so. And now, the young woman was forever gone, and whatever remained of her was either in the ashes of the Sprout Tower, scattered by the winds days ago, or else at the bottom of the gulf, deeper than he had ever seen.. 

He wept, each of his warm, damp tear trailing down in the gulf below and falling beneath the waves to an eternal end, as they became one with the salty waters that sparkled under the shining sun. Again, he wished that he could just put behind him all of his ties to the world and jump, to join Misty in death. But he just couldn't do that…he had his friends who needed him, Gary especially. He had an oath to fulfill, even though bringing down Team Rocket seemed such an hollow, empty goal now. There would be nothing to gain by doing that, save for the lengthening of his suffering. But there was no way around it – he would do whatever he could to keep that promise.

He stared one last time at the empty waters, emotions welling up inside him.

"I'll finish them Misty. I'll finish them, and then, I'll come back here. And we'll be together." He whispered slowly.

____________________________

Standing under the shadows of the tall trees now far from the edge of the cliff, Todd, Gary, Richie and Brock watched worriedly. It was very obvious to all of them what Ash was considering, and it was just as obvious to Gary at least that they couldn't afford to let that happen.

He had already lost his girlfriend, and there was no way he would loose his best friend as well. As he slowly took a step forward to go talk to Ash, he heard the sound of walking behind him, and turned to face a policeman, one of those who were in charge of the investigation related to the fire in Sprout Tower. 

"Ah! There you are. I've been looking for you. We've found new information, and I thought I could inform you of what we found out." He told them.

"Oh? What is it?" Gary asked curiously.

"It wasn't a normal fire. But with the help of a person who assist the police from time to time, we've been able to find out more about what exactly it was." He started to explain. "It was a psychic fire. I don't understand the details exactly, but basically, a psychic fire is just as destructive as a real one, but since it is entirely coming from the strength of the mind creating it, it can't be put out." He added. "Which is why your friend's water pokemon didn't help at all, and why the firemen were unable to help." The man concluded.

"Wait!" Richie said. "Does that mean you know for sure that it wasn't an accident?" he asked, his eyes suddenly filled with cold fire.

"Well, yes. Someone did this. So basically your friend was murdered." He added, his face bleak. "I've heard what you done with Team Rocket…please try not to be too rash, ok?" he added.

"We'll see about that." Gary replied coldly, before running to Ash to tell him.

"So what she was murdered?" he asked in the tone of someone who did not care.

"Well, ever heard of revenge?" Gary shot back, more than a little irritated at his friend attitude. Didn't he realize that after loosing Misty, note of them wanted to loose him?

"Yeah. But it won't bring back Misty." Was the answer, delivered in a sad tone of voice. "I'll go with you guys to finish the Rocket, and if they happen to be behind that murder, or if we ran in those who did that in the way, we'll deal with them too. But once we're done with Team Rocket, I'm coming back here. And I'm going to join Misty at that point." His friend added bleakly. Gary stood unmoving, knowing there was nothing to say or do, and hoping that something would happen during their hunt that would keep Ash alive.

_______________________________

Much further north, close to mount Mortar, the city of Ecruteak stood between the Rage river and the Ecruteak Lake. It was a sizable city, and an ancient one, with many traditional buildings as well as the new ones. The city was, and had been for years, a meeting point between three of the most important road of the land of Johto. And even before those road had been built, its location marked it as a major crossroad, as one almost had to go by way of Ecruteak to move from the region of Mahogany to that of the great Olivine plains to the west, or to Violet and Goldenrold to the south. Now, route 38 lead through the vast plains of Olivine to the great seaport that gave its name to the plains. To the east, route 42 ran along the various mountains lake that formed along the waterfalls of the Rage river, which had been so named after those waterfalls, and through areas of undeveloped woodland before reaching Mahogany and further east the Ice Pass and Blackthorn beyond. To the south, Route 37 ran along the hills between mount ??? and the Alph mountains, before splitting in the two branchs of Route 36 that lead east to Violet and West to Goldenrod. 

The mysteriously garbed young woman came in the town from the east, entering the ancient part of the city by the Blackthorn gate. The garb hide much about her, outside the fact that she was obviously human, and probably female, though even that could not be sure. The garb was black, covering her entire body, shining a bit, not like leather under the sun, but rather almost like metal would shine, as if the strange black material was more akin to iron than to leather or silk. A ninja-like mask covered the lower part of her face, all that was under the eyes, while the hood of a long black cloak seeming made of the same material as everything else she wore kept all eyes away from seeing anything more about her eyes than the mysterious reddish glow in them. She walked down the streets toward the central plaza of the town, and somehow as she did so, the many citizens of the town found themselves drawn to follow her, though none could tell why. 

She spoke at last, her voice definitely adding weight to the theory that she was female, though even with that some remained doubtful.

"I am Shadow." She told them in an odd voice. "I" she continued, and the glow in her eyes increased. "have been sent to hunt" she told them, and they all wondered what it was that she was hunting. "My prey" she continued, about to answer that question, "Is this one." She completed, revealing a picture of a young man in blue jeans with a black shirt and a blue vest, as well as a pokemon league hat. Somehow, even those farther from the center of the plaza could see every detail of the picture. "Those who will stand against me," she added, her voice low and threatening, "will die and suffer. And those who will help me...they will have their lives." She added darkly.

"Oh, great..." one of the witness replied, shaking his head. "like I was going to be afraid of a guy who read too many ninja stories." He said scornfully, looking at the creature in disgust.

Shadow did not even reply with words, but rather took immediate action. Her eyes glowed again, and the offender rose in the air, his back arching almost to the point of breaking, surrounded by a strange red glow that matched the one in the mysterious figure's eyes..

"Aaaaaaahhhh!" the man screamed as the pain of having his back brought to a point so near to destruction came in him. "Please..." he added, his voice loaded with suffering. "I… under…stand...I won't…oppose you...I'll cooperate..." he begged through the pain.

"I don't doubt that…I'd have used you for an example, but you're so disliked around here from the reaction of your comrades that it would be pointless." Shadow said bleakly. "I'll have to do something more… convincing to get full cooperation." She added.

She looked around at the city, her eyes still glowing with the same unholy fire that had been brought to bear against them more than once. A sudden rumbling sound filled the air, and all around them, the houses started to crumble and fall down in dust, shattered by power beyond understanding. It barely took over a minute for the centuries-old town that had withstood the passage of eons to fall down in ruins, shattered by the astounding power of the creature. Yet, despite the widespread destruction of the buildings, nothing else was affected. The pokemon looked around in surprise, as if they had not idea what had just happened, and the trees where still standing as proudly as they had stood before the storm, except that no there were no buildings to rivalize with them in height.

"You've just seen what I can do. And what I can do with your houses, I can do to your families as well. Make your choice, and don't make the mistake of opposing me." She told them before leaving the town. "Spread the word of what happened here. Those who'll oppose me will die."

___________________________

Two days of hard wakling had taken Gary and his companions to the crossroad where route 36 and route 37 met, on the way to the city of Goldenrod, where Brock and Todd would hope in a plane back to Kanto, while Ash, Richie and Gary would try out a new rocket-luring plan. As they reached the exact point where the two roads met, they heard the sound of a car behind them, a car that braked suddenly as the driver saw them walking in the road. She started to come out of the car, about to yell at them, then her face changed completely.

"Hey! Aren't you those trainers who asked me for help back in the mountains?" she asked, her white hair flowing behind her as a smile appeared on her eighteen-years old face.

Gary nodded. "That's us. Though…"

"I know. I've heard about your friend. More than heard in fact, and that's why I was in the vicinity in the first place. I was helping the police with the investigation." She told them, then explained as she realized they were all surprised by the revelation. "They asks me for help when they think there might be something psychic involved."

"Really?" Gary asked in surprise. "But…"

"But you wonder why they'd ask me? Well, aside from the fact that I am the most powerful psychic west of the Silver Range, and probably a match for Sabrina who claim the title in Kanto, no reasons, really." She said with a brief smile.

"I guess that makes sense…but…aren't you a bit young?" Richie questioned, and Brock nodded.

"Yeah…just how old are you?" he asked, then blushed as he began to realize the question was not really polite.

"Weren't you ever told that it was impolite to ask that of a lady?" she said, a grin on her face. "Though I admit that with my look, it's a legitimate question." She smiled. "I'm twenty-nine. Everyone in my family look much younger than they are." She said with a mysterious smile. "And all the girls in my family have those silver-white hair. All of my father's sister had them, and so did their father's sister. So do my daughter, for that matter." She smiled, and Gary could only imagine that she was thinking about her daughter, though he wondered for a brief moment where she had been when they had visited her home a few weeks earlier.

"Where are you going now? You seem to be done in Violet, since you are leaving…" Todd asked suddenly.

"Going to Enju..." she replied, and her face became that of someone who was facing darkness eternal. "Something terrible happened and the police asked me to come and help since I'm probably the one best suited to deal with what happened..." she added, and looked at them.

"But what happened?" asked Richie, a touch of curiosity. "Unless you think it doesn't concern us or some such." He quickly added.

"It concerns Ash very much." She replied without a trace of a smile. "A strange person appeared there, and threatened to kill everyone if they didn't help her to hunt down Ash." She explained. "And when they laughed at her her, she just destroyed the whole town. No one died, but every building was destroyed." 

"That sounds like that "Shadow" or whatever is a powerful psychic…Do you think you can deal with her?" Gary asked worriedly, knowing that if Danea could not stop Shadow, no one would protect them and Ash.

"I think so. I could probably have pulled off the destruction of the town had I wanted to, but it's not the kind of things I like to do." She replied, a bleak smile on her face.

"That's saying something...You said this "Shadow" is after Ash?" Gary asked again, not sure he really believed it.

"Well, that's what it tells everyone...your friend would be much better hiding...soon everyone in the world will want to capture him to give him to this Shadow..." she told them, noticing Ash was further away and not listening to what they were saying.

She was silent for a long moment then looked at her watch.

"Oh my god! If I want to reach Enju today, I'd better go..."She told them, then headed for her car.

"Wait! I think we'll go along if you don't mind." Gary suddenly told. "If that thing want Ash, well, we're concerned..." he explained. "Anyway, I suppose the police would like to talk with him, and there's hardly anything I would consider a more efficient defense in case Shadow catch up with us than someone like you or Sabrina." He added.

"Okay then." She smiled. "You made a good point there." She added. "Just make sure that nobody in town recognize Ash...As I understand the mayor was last planning to offer a reward for his capture and as soon as he get him, turn him over to Shadow..." she explained, her voice taking a slight tone of disgust as she spoke of the man's plans.

Gary nodded once, and they all jumped in her car as it sped north toward Ecruteak.


	5. Part 5 : Shades of Black

Part 5 : Shades of Black

Chapter 21 : Against the Shadow

It was as the night slowly fell over the rubbles that were all that remained of the city of Ecruteak that they reached the once-proud city. From the tale of horror that Danea had brought to their ears, Richie expected a huge ruined city, but even all the mental preparation he had made since first hearing about the disaster was nothing in comparison with seeing if firsthand. Yet, where the devastation was shocking, even more shocking was the fact that it had only affected whatever man-made buildings there were in the city, leaving everything else intact. Concrete, steel, glass, all of those had been shattered by the powerful blast of energy, yet trees much closer to the center of the devastation had been left untouched, as if nothing had happened to them.

It was a disaster, the like of which no human had ever witnessed before, save twice in history, two days years, over half a century, earlier that would forever remain marked in the imagination of mankind as the days on which a new era of terror began. That era was over now, or so they had all thought, yet someone still wielded a power as destructive as the one that had finally been laid to rest forever, though it was a power that could destroy without killing or, darker perspective, kill without destroying. Any conquest-eager tyrant would have been ready to give his soul for such a dreadful, atrocious weapon, and now someone had one.

The thought was disgusting to the young man who had grown up in the later years of the era of terror under the threat of nuclear weapons wielded by powers across the world. Those weapons had now been destroyed, forever lost in the mist of time, fortunately, and Richie, young as he had been, had shouted with relief on the day the last missile had been destroyed.

Now, however, someone else had found a weapon with the same destructive power, and worst as far as he was concerned, rather than aiming the weapon at some foreign capital for a tactical advantage, it had been aimed at them, to allow a mysterious figure to catch Ash for whatever reasons it had. It was a definitely frightening prospect, that of one day having to face the dreadful creature that had such power, but on the other hand, loosing Ash without even fighting to save him made Richie's skin crawl with disgust.

"I never imagined" he started whispering, awed by the widespread devastation. "I never thought psychic powers could got that far." He completed his thought.

"Danea...could you have done that...in under a minute?" Gary asked, his voice inquisitive.

"Alone, no..." she answered thoughtfully. "But linked with my Espeon, I think so." She added.

"Linked?" Brock asked in surprise. "I never heard of that. What is it?" he asked.

"Well, you probably know that most psychic trainers have some kind of link to their pokemon, right?"

"Yeah, a telepathic link..." Richie said, nodding as he wondered what she was about to explain them.

"Well, that's a good way to put it. Now, in some cases, a trainer will develop a far stronger link to the pokemon than just the link by which they pass information." She continued. "Using that link, it's possible for a psychic trainer to tap in the raw psychic energy of his pokemon and uses it as well as his own energy. Which is what I was saying." She finished. "Alone, I couldn't have done that in less than a minute. Tapping in Espeon's powers, yes." She told them.

"I guess that makes sense..." Richie said slowly as they got out of the car, an hooded sweet shirt covering Ash's face so that no one would attack him. They walked in the rubble-filled streets, that were only distinguishable from the rest of the city because of the narrow strips of relatively clear black ground in the middle, where the falling debris from either side had not reached the street in quantities as great as that which had reached the sides.

In the middle of what had been one of the town squares, a sizeable tent had been erected to serve as headquarters for the local police forces, such as they were after the disaster. The prisoners jailed inside the local police station had fled of course when the wall of their prison had crumbled, and most of the few police agents in the small city were now affected to helping the homeless which had so suddenly become legions.

"Hey! Danea! It's been a long time!" one of the officer shouted as the silver-haired woman walked in the tent. "I'm glad you could come that quickly. That Shadow person got to be taken care of as soon as it can be done." She added seriously.

"I noticed...if she visits any more town..." the brief shuddering motion that shook her body was barely visible, but Richie caught it. "But outside that Shadow thing, how are you Helena?" she smiled, and Richie could only guess that the two had to be friends, or at least had been at some point in the past.

"I'm fine...or I'd be, rather. But you asked how I was outside that shadow thing, and I guess I'd be fine without that." She said with a thin smile that was mirrored on Danea's otherwise serious face.

"We would all be better without Shadow, wouldn't we?" Danea commented sadly.

"Oh, definitely not. I mean, she's done such wondrous thing for us...Thanks to her we'll have decent-sized streets now instead of the narrow ones that were way too old anyway." The policewoman replied sarcastically.

"Still the same, aren't you?" Danea answered, amused at the comment. 

"Why should I change?" her friend shrugged off the comment with a smile. "Follow me, I'll show you what we have." For the first time, she seemed to notice that Danea was not alone. "Your friends can come inside, too...you'll have to present them to me." She said, grinning.

They walked inside the tent, and found that it was surprisingly well organized for an emergency police station. The officer led them to a sheltered area in the back where they would be able to talk with a certain degree of privacy normally not associated with tents. As soon as they were there, the woman sat down at her desk and looked at them all.

"Now, from your faces, I'm thinking you didn't want to tell everyone who your friends are, right?" She smiled. "Well, I know a few of them. One of my co-worker told me about the infamous Pewter gym leader, after hearing about him from all of her sisters." She said, smiling at Brock as the young man eyes flew widely open to stare in dismay at the woman. "And since I am an amateur photographer, I of course heard about mister Klaus here." She added, pointing at Todd. "It's an honor to meet you." She added, shaking Todd's hand.

"Well, I'm not THAT great..." Todd answered, blushing as he tried to free her hand and finally suceeded.

"Well, anyway." Helena said after shaking her head for a moment. "I have no ideas who the other are."

"Yeah, I guess I should do the presentation." Danea admitted with a smile. "This one is Richie Cotter. He's a trainer from Viridian City. Not a bad one, too." She smiled at the young man. "Got pretty far in the Indigo league two years ago, from what he told me." She explained. "This one is Gary Oak. The grandson of Samuel Oak - I'm sure you heard about him." Danea continued. "And this last one is Ash Ketchum..." she began, only to be interrupted by her friend.

"Ketchum? Why...A relative of yours?" she asked, astonishment pained on her face.

"Uh...well..." Danea started, obviously wishing very much Helena had kept her mouth shut. "Yeah...my nephew, actually." She finally admitted, actually obtaining a reaction from Ash for once, a startled gasp. 

"You...you're my aunt?" he finally asked, and for the first time since the fire Richie heard him saying something that had nothing to do with Misty dying, or death and despair. 

Danea sighed. "You just had to go and say it Helena, didn't you? Yes, I am. Which is why I took you in the other day, and why I am very much interested in this Shadow matter. Among other things. But please don't ask me about your father, he really doesn't want you to know...yet." she told him. 

"Wait a minute!" Helena suddenly said. "What's the link between his being your nephew and Shadow?" she asked. "Unless...he's the one, isn't it?"

"From what I can tell, yes." Danea replied with steel in her voice. "And you can bet I'm not letting Shadow anywhere near him. I owe my brother that much." She added, and as she said the last part, Richie could have sworn there was a faint touch of pain in her voice, as if she was recalling some events from long ago, yet painful events.

"Amen to that. The mayor would disagree, but he's an idiot who has no idea how to run things in life. I'm not about to let him fall for terrorist traps. Especially not since doing so would involve betraying you Danea." The woman said with steel in her voice and fire in her eyes. "Still, I'd like to know if he has any idea why Shadow might be after him. Do you think you have one young man?" she asked him with a warm smile. 

"I don't know...I don't really care..." Ash answered blankly.

"Someone's out to track you down, probably to kill you and that's how you take it?" she asked in utter surprise.

"Helena..." Danea started with a calm, yet somehow sad voice. "He just lost his best friend in that fire in Violet..." she explained, her eyes somehow carrying the notion than it had been more than friendship, though neither of them had admitted to having these feelings. 

"Oh..." she answered, obviously wishing she had not been as hard with her last remark. "I'm sorry Ash...I didn't know..." she apologized.

"It's all right." Ash replied emotionlessly.

"Still, you do have a bit of problem on your hands...that Shadow seems really after you."

"I know he does." Danea nodded. "I just brought him here so that you could see who it is that Shadow is after - and because with that one after him, I prefer being close at hand...speaking of wich, what can you tell me about that one?"

"Next to nothing..." she said bitterly. "She has psychic powers, that's for sure. She clothes herself completely in black and hide everything of her except her eyes and a narrow strip around them, and she is willing to kill."

"Are you so sure about that?" Danea objected. "So far, she destroyed a lot, threatened to kill, but didn't kill..." She explained her objection.

"Yes...maybe she only want to give herself a reputation as someone who'll do what it takes to get what she wants. But still..."

"I know. I was just speculating. Did anyone see her since she destroyed Ecruteak?"

"Not that we know of...as of yet Personally, I expect that I'll get a call about another city being destroyed sometime soon."

It was then that another policeman entered the office, and went to whispers a few words to Helena. Her face blanched as she heard what he had to say, and she turned toward them.

"Well, seem I was right...our "friend" just visited Violet City. Not as bad as what she did here, though - she "only" destroyed the gym. But I suspect that's because someone there actually remembered you, and told her about you leaving and probably coming this way." She repeated the message to them. "I think you should run for your life." She told Ash.

"Why?" He answered darkly.

"We'll be leaving soon." Danea answered her friend, shooting a warning look at Ash.

"I think that's for the best...you staying with him and catching that damn Shadow when she come close to him is the best idea we came up so far, but I don't think we want that showdown to happen here."

"Good point." Danea nodded.

"Though...are you sure you are strong enough to take on that thing?" she asked worriedly.

"I think I am...And that's quite beside the point. Now the question is, where should we go?" Danea shrugged off the question.

"Well, from here, considering that Violet and route 36 are not options, it's either Olivine - wich would allow you to take a ship bound for Vermilion or the Orange islands, or Mahogany - which would allow you to hide in the forests around Lake Rage. It's your choice tough..."

"We'll go to Olivine...better leave ourselves as many options as we can...and lake Rage is slightly too isolated for me..." Danea made her choice, earning nods from Brock, Gary and Todd. Richie kept his mouth shut, though he agreed with the choice, and Ash, of course, made no comments.

_________________________________

It was five days later that they reached Olivine, after walking in the plains rather than using a car on the road. Shadow obviously would be moving from cities to cities looking for them, so moving slowly in empty or scarcely populated areas seemed to be the best tactic to avoid the beast until they reached a better battleground, one where they could bring in more firepower to bear against Shadow. As far as Gary was concerned, bringing Sabrina and the Elite Four in on this would do about the trick. Hopefully.

Olivine was a large seaport, challenging even Vermilion for the title of the largest seaport of the world. The two towns had been rival for years, even centuries, and the rivalry showed no signs of vanishing. The enormous lighthouse in the vicinity of the harbor was said to be the largest in the world, according at least to the people at the tourist information center they went by while entering the town. One major difference with Vermilion seemed to be the enormous sandy beach that stretched for miles between the city and the sea, and that was, as they passed by it, filled with people despite the fact that it was already autumn, albeit only early autumn.

They quickly inquired about the best hotel they could find, always careful to keep Ash out of view, and rapidly they were settling for the night, planning to go the harbor and book tickets aboard a ship the next morning, a ship that would leave as soon as possible, even if only for Cianwood on the nearby island.

The next morning was dark, stormy, and the sky was covered with at thick layer of dark clouds that blocked the horizon. To anyone who had lived near the sea at some point, such as Gary, it was obvious that a savage autumn storm was brewing and would break out soon. They walked out in the streets, going down toward the harbor. As they approached the harbor, the steady beat of rain falling in the streets started to mirror the sound of their feet hitting the pavement, followed by the random and a bit stressing sound of crashing thunder. The dark sky would briefly be lit by the brilliant flashes of thunder, and the rolling sound of thunder shattered the silence of the early day more and more frequently.

It was as one of the lighting shattered the darkness that had partly began to cover the street as the inky black clouds blocked out all view that the dark cloaked form of their nemesis appeared in the street. Danea motioned for them all to hide, and Gary tackled Ash to the ground in a nearby stairway that lead to a door below the street level. Richie took cover with them, while on the other side Todd and Brock took cover in an alleyway. 

"I know Ash Ketchum is with you. I suggest he steps out now, or else I'll kill you all..." she said, her voice menacing.

"Oh, really? I don't think so..." Danea stepped forward, readying herself for the battle from what Gary could see. The strong wind that was picking up made her long silver hair and her dark blue cloak-like coat fly.

"You think you can oppose me? Did you hear what happened to Violet? They tried to oppose me too. Now, they are willing to cooperate..." Shadow mentioned.

"Oh, stop it. I could have done the same, you know..." she answered, obviously disgusted at the empty threats. She then picked one of her pokeball and threw it, revealing the cat-like form of an Espeon.

"An Espeon. What a pitiful defense...A pokemon like that won't do you any good against me."

"Alone, no. But linked with me, we'll just see about that." Danea answered threateningly.

"A link...interesting. But tell me what you think of THIS?" Shadow yelled, gathering the darkness of the could in a ball of energy that she flung with all her might at Danea.

Danea's eyes took the familiar glow of the psychic powers, and the dark energy was deflected, bouncing harmlessly off her, but hitting the walls of a nearby house and leaving dark marks on it as it bore a hole for a certain distance. 

______________________________

Ash watched the battle without much interest, knowing that no matter what, death was the end result of what would happen in his life. What was the point of trying to continue living when you could just let yourself be killed, and end it all? He watched as Danea retaliated to her opponent's first move, and as a flurry of arrows of light flew from her hands, bouncing harmlessly off Shadow's wall of darkness and going to hit the nearby buildings, though the destruction each of these brought was nowhere near the destruction that.

Even though he wished to die with all his heart, Ash could not help to wonder who else wished to see him die to the point that they would send assassins after assassins to get him - first, the fire at Sprout Tower, then the whole Shadow deal. In his mind, there was no doubt the two were linked, and no doubt also that Team Rocket had nothing to do with the whole deal.

While he thought about the two murder attempt, and tried to puzzle out the link that made him so sure they were by one and the same person - after all, he had made a number of enemies since becoming a pokemon trainer, and he would certainly not be surprised if more than one of them was after him - Ash watched the majestic chaos that could be seen in the street. Arrows of lights and orbs of darkness crashed in each other with astounding regularity, and those that went past each other would find themselves flung back to hit walls or the street, or fly off harmlessly in the sky overhead as they struck the barrier of mental energy that the two fighters had established around themselves. 

But what could be the link between the two things? The one thing that made him so sure that they were linked, and not different? Setting a fire and sending an assassing after him didn't sounds like the same at all...Yet, somehow, he was sure there was a link between the two, and that if only he could find it everything would make sense.

More bolts of psychic fire struck the walls on each side as the two combatants continued their astounding struggle, mental energy taking life in light and darkness to kill. A dark orb of power from Shadow flew toward Danea, only to be intercepted midway by a arrow of light that went right through it, stopping in the middle to detonate with a flash of light, obliterating the orb. 

Psychic energy. Ash watched, stunned by the display of power before him. Even the powerful elemental attacks that Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Lugia had traded back and for back in the Falangir islands earlier that year were nothing in comparison with the destructive, life-taking power of the bolts of energy that went from one fighter to another. For some reason, the duel vaguely stirred Ash's memory, as if he had seen something somewhat similar once before, but he couldn't recall at all what it had been. 

Chapter 22 : Legacy of the Seers

Tracey entered the city of Valencia slowly, despairing of ever finding clues of the whereabouts of Team Rocket. There had been nothing at the mill, except a tin lead that had brought him from place to place here on Valencia island, were the track ended brutally, leaving no hints that it had ever existed at all. Frustration had long ago left him, replaced by a feeling of weariness and hopelessness, the sure and utter knowledge that no matter what they wouldn't succeed.

And now he was there, with no idea of what to do next, and no way to get in touch with his companions. He had not spoken with any of them since they had left the Orange Islands. With a touch of wry amusement, he noted a sign by a nearby shop, advertising the services of one Irma, supposedly able to predict the future with the help of her Alakazam.

Having nothing better to do, and reflecting that the wacky predictions of a fortune teller would always be better than the dark musing that had been his for the last few days, he stepped in the shop, and went to the woman sitting at the counter. As he approached her, an Alakazam sitting besides her looked oddly at him and he fell on the ground, fighting at his best to remain conscious, aware that in all probability he had just fallen in a trap, and that he would be helpless if he indeed had.

As he felt in a strange sleep, the last thing he could remember was the face of the woman, a strangely gentle smile that almost seemed to mean she was relieved to see him fall, the face of someone who had waited for something a long time to finally see it.

____________________________

Dark mists swirled in front of his eyes, obscuring his visions. He passed a hand before them, trying to clear his sight, but it was futile, the swirling darkness still covered everything he could see.

Suddenly, the mist cleared, as if he was sitting in a theater and the curtains were rising before the actual play started, as if the he was the only spectator to a show no one had witnessed before.

What had been the swirling darkness took shapes, shapes that Tracey could hardly perceive at first, though they were certainly not human. At first it was the shape of a rocky island somehow made to float in the sky, and a warrior bathed in moonlight, wearing a full armor standing on it. The armor reflected the light of the moon, or perhaps created a light identical to it, and the being seemed to be tall and defiant.

__

The lord of night stands tall and defiant The words came unbidden to his mind, as though he had always known them in the subconscious depth of his soul.

More figures appeared out of the mists, first of all that of a great dragon, covered with golden scales, a fiery mane flowing in the wind as its claws seemed ready to claim the life of the warrior with ease, ready to strike. But the great dragon suddenly vanished, living a much smaller one behind, though despite its smaller size, the new dragon seemed just as fierce as the one before, his father perhaps, has been. Somehow, Tracey knew the magnificent beast was not meant to be alive, that it had died already, but that powers beyond measure had ended its death.

__

The Child of the Dragon, over death he comes to lead them again the words came to him unbidden, perhaps fragment of a long-forgotten memory, or perhaps the expression of his artistic soul describing what he saw.

A third figure walked out of the dark swirling shadows hanging out on all the sides of the room, this one undeniable the figure of a woman shrouded in eternal mist, walking through fire and shadow as she came to stand beside the dragon. A small crown rested upon her head, identifying her as someone of great stature, a true lady at least, if not more.

__

The lady of the mists, through fire and shadow she stands at the child side

A blizzard struck the scene with fierce fury, seemingly out to freeze everything with the cold shards of ice it carried in its breath, bringing death and destruction to those who stood in its way. Yet the three figure stood unflinching in the face of the storm, and as it receded the three were still left unharmed, and the only trace that the cold storm had ever existed was a single baby, lying on the ground. Without warning, flames enveloped the island, swallowing all, yet again all four figures, even the baby, stood unmoved, ignoring the flames as a fifth shape materialized.

__

The Son of Storms and the Daughter of Flame, forever bound the verse came to his mind immediately. He had never been a poet, his artistic talent lying more in the fields of drawing, but now he was seemingly able to find the most poetic ways to say things.

From a perfectly clear sky, a sizzling thunderbolt fell on the ground, and a man appeared in the sky, throwing bolts of light everywhere, at all those who stood in the island, before joining them, his eyes still filled with the rage and power of the fiercest thunderstorm.

__

The thunderer, whose eyes will carry the wrath of heavens

The darkness that had vanished for a while, being held back at the corners of the room suddenly flooded it all, as a single figure walked alone in the middle of the night, as if lost in a thousand dreams, but then the dreams turned toward her, and bowed, before vanishing. The Darkness receded again, and the figure joined the others to stand, ready to fight, which was what Tracey was now sure would happen the instant they were all there.

__

The Mistress of Dreams, bound by no limits save her own mind.

A strange, eerie light filled the stage, a light that sometime seemed purple, but at other times seemed to be a rainbow of shimmering colors. A lonely figure walked on the stage, and she stood alone, as the darkness appeared on all side to tear her apart. The hand of the dragon suddenly appeared, pulling her forward. The eerie light vanished, and she stood with all the others.

__

The One Who stood alone, who walked the darkest path his subconscious mind told him.

One last figure appeared, and she seemed just as lost as the one before had been, torn by powers beyond what she could understand, darkness swirling around her. She looked around wildly for a path, despair and darkness showing in her eyes, a lone kid lost on the way from home. A young woman lost in a dark, deadly world that did not want anything of her, a world she had harmed, harm that she eternally regretted somehow.

__

The Lost Soul, doom of her own blood the name came to him, as well as the explanation of what it was that she had done.

Two more figures appeared, though he knew they were not as important as the first ten. One just was there suddenly, and he knew with a deadly certitude that that one figure had never been born, that he just was, never born. The second was the image of a singer, a soft voice calling in the depth of the night for something or someone through the power of her voice. Summoning more to the islands, bringing in those who should have been there but weren't.

Chaos erupted, and when he could see again, the vision was completely different, except that they were still on the strange rocky floating island. The dragon was nowhere to be seen, and the Warrior of the Moon as he had called the mysterious being that had been first to appear was standing, his swords raised proudly.

But the one that had been lost, the Lost Soul appeared before him, attempting to disarm him in a fierce attack. The Warrior tried to parry the attack and fell backward, but before Tracey could make anything more out of the vision, it vanished completely, leaving the strange setting to slowly ebbs away as the living darkness that had made it regrouped, and became itself again, a swirling mass of darkness that he could not pierce, no matter how hard he tried to..

__________________________

He felt his eyes slowly opening again, and realized that he was lying on the floor of the shop, and wondered if it had all been a dream, if he had simply fainted or been knocked out, before realizing that the woman was standing guard over him. Now that he took a closer look at her, she seemed vaguely familiar, as if he had heard of her before, though he simply could not replace who she might be.

"What happened?" he asked, panting.

"You simply became what you were meant to be." She answered cryptically. "The one who'll come after me." She added, smiling at him. 

"But...what...was it a dream?" He asked in bewilderment. 

"No, that was no dream. A prophetic vision, rather." She answered. It was a...symbolic...vision of an even that will take place in the future. Though from what I know, and what you said while you were in trance, I'd gather what you saw wasn't that symbolic, aside from a few major things..." she replied.

"But...why did I see that? How?" He simply had no idea anymore what was going on.

"You saw that because you are my successor. The next Seer." Her answer was calm, quiet even. "As you probably guessed already, I'm not any Irma. I am Agatha, of the Kanto Elite Four. And also, the current Seeress of the world." She added.

"Seer? Seeress?" He didn't understand a thing of what was going on.

"The Seer - or in my case, seeress - is a chosen individual of a given generation who can see the future through prophetic trance. There can only be one seer at a time, and his - or her - apprentice." She patiently explained. "A seer find his apprentice by...you could call it pure luck, but there's more than that. At one point in his life, the seer will be compelled to go to a specific location, so that he can meet his future apprentice, the other one with the second sight. The meeting of the two will create a reaction from the apprentice - what happened to you - and then, the Seer will know who he'll be teaching." She explained quickly, and though things were actually beginning to make a certain measure of sense, he would have paid a lot for more explanations.

"I'd love to tell you more, but that will have to wait. Now, you'll have to come with me to Indigo so that I can teach you." She told him in her old, used voice. She nodded once, and the Alakazam - which probably wasn't hers, as she wasn't a psychic pokemon trainer - vanished, taking the two of them along.

__________________________

More psychic energy flew in the air, and as a bolt flew closer to his group, Ash gasped as the link suddenly struck him. The fire at Sprout tower had been a psychic fire, controled by the mind of someone, and here again there was psychic energy. Maybe it was the mysterious Shadow who had set the fire in Sprout Tower, but Ash doubted it. There was something else, something deeper, something...darker. He looked closely at the woman, and some oddity struck him. 

During his travels he had seen psychic powers being used more than once, and somehow, the way Shadow used her powers was nothing like he had ever seen, as if the powers weren't her in the first place, but rather coming from far away and focused through the body...through, he noticed with surprise, an unwilling body- Shadow's hand seemed to fight against throwing each ball of energy, but simply couldn't resist the will controlling them.

It was with a loud clicking noise inside his mind that everything fell in place, perhaps fueled by wishful thinking, perhaps by the hope that nothing was ever over. But yet, the picture that appeared in his mind as a thousand tiny clues fell in place - tiny clues, clues that he would never even have considered as clues...but now, they were. Now that he was so sure he knew the truth, they were all clues, and these clues were strengthened by the look of Shadow, even as shrouded in mystery as she was. The brief glimpse of her eyes he had caught before the psychic onslaught had begun only confirmed his suspicions.

Suddenly, Shadow seemed to loose it for a brief moment, half a second, to be completely out of the fight, and Danea aimed another bolt at the defenseless enemy. Knowing that if he didn't act now, he would live to regret it, Ash sprang to his feet.

"DANEA! NO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, drawing both fighter away from their battle. As Shadow recovered from her momentary mental absence, she struck out with another ball of shadow, this time aimed straight at him.

Ash felt a weight on his legs and stumbled forward as Gary gripped his legs from behind, throwing him to the ground just in time so that his head went under the first ball of darkness, while Danea's arrows of light pierced the following ones, obliterating them. Yet, the first dark sphere struck the wall of the house just behind Ash, and a loose brick fell from it, crashing down toward Ash and knocking him out.

_________________________

Danea looked at Shadow as Ash fell to the ground. There was something so very odd about the figure, a strange sense of familiarity from the presence, yet somehow overlain by an evil darker than the darkest evil. There was something so very wrong in this fight, something she knew, yet something that she couldn't identify.

Ash had wanted her to spare's Shadow's life, and with the doubts she was now having, there was no way she could deliver a killing blow. She just couldn't kill someone while that person was so obviously not fully in control.

As she thought that, she realized just how fully appropritate the expression had been, and gambling that Shadow would wait a moment before delivering the next strike at Ash, she launched a powerful strike at Shadow, but nothing that would even hurt the creature.

The strike, for one, struck true. Shadow suddenly felt to the ground, clutching her head as a sheet of light enveloped her and causes a scream of pain and loss to echo from her lips.

And suddenly, as it had begun, the whole madness ended, and Shadow rose, looking around them in surprise, though not in very much surprise. She spotted the body of Ash face-down on the ground and raced toward it with a scream of pain and guilt.

Chapter 23 : A Moment of Truth 

Gary looked at the completely transformed Shadow as she rushed toward Ash, after letting out that cry of pain and guilt. There was no reason that he could see for Shadow utter transformation, from wanting to kill Ash to feeling so bad about wounding him.

"What did you do?" Richie asked Danea in amazement.

"Well...From the moment the battle started, I felt there was something odd about Shadow, as if she wasn't entirely what she seemed, as if there was more to it. Something kinda familiar about it, both in the feeling of her presence and in the way she fought. I didn't realize what it was until Ash gave me the final clue though."

"Yeah, but what WAS it?" Richie asked in frustration as Danea explained how she had realized what it was, but conveniently forgetting to explain what it was.

"Basically put, Shadow wasn't acting of her own free will - she was under the mental control of someone else, probably far away. The same someone who was in fact launching the psychic attacks, focusing them through Shadow's body." She added. "But now that poor girl is going to have to live with the knowledge - and probably the guilt - of what Shadow did, even if it wasn't her fault."

"So you're saying she wasn't even a psychic?" Gary asked in surprise. That much damage, and yet the girl had no power of her own?

"She had none...but I'm not sure how having so much power focused through her will change that...she might have some small powers now. Or not, it's hard to tell." She told them.

Brock and Todd were already near Ash, trying to keep Shadow away, as they had obviously no ideas of what Danea just had told Gary and Richie. Shadow was trying to push them back, but seemed almost reluctant to do anything to them that might result in them being hurt, so she spend most of her time pleading, begging, her voice still made strange by the cloth that covered her face. 

"Let's take him to the hospital." Danea told Brock and Todd as they came closer to Ash. "Oh, and stop fighting Shadow...she's all right."

"But she just tried to kill him!" Brock protested. Shadow's shoulders slumped at the accusation and she -lowered her head even more. A few crystal tears fell to the ground at her feet.

"It wasn't her. She was being controlled. Trust me." Danea told them with a hard glare, putting a comforting hand on Shadow's shoulder. Brock and Todd nodded reluctantly and the two of them, with the help of Gary and Shadow, began to pick up Ash.

"Don't do that...I think it'd be safer if I did it." She told them, using her psychic powers to lift Ash in the air. "That fight was exhausting, but I still have enough strength to carry him to the hospital...it isn't far." She added.

They walked slowly, and as Danea seemed to be exhausted physically, Gary helped her for the final few step as they reached the hospital. They entered, and a doctor in a long white coat immediately rushed to them, followed by a nurse pushing a stretcher. With a final effort, Danea lifted Ash onto the litter with her powers, then staggered to the seats and fell down on one of them, exhausted. Gary joined her as the doctors took Ash away to see what there was to be done about him. Shadow sat down besides them, and Danea wearily picked up a cellphone form her pocket, and dialed a number. 

For a brief moment, Gary wondered what it was she was doing, and when he heard her first words - "Hi Helena. It's Danea." - he easily understood. She was calling her friend of the Ecruteak police to get her word about the events, and how Shadow had been under the mental control. They talked on for a while, and in the meantime Gary wondered about the mysterious Shadow.

There was still something odd about the whole situation, something he could not quite put his finger on, something so very odd...The cry of Shadow after Ash had fallen to the ground seemed somehow to go deeper than that of anguish at the thought of having killed someone. It had seemed to be intensely personal, as if Shadow had somehow known Ash. And then, there was Ash, who had rashly thrown himself in the open to tell Danea not to do something, he had no idea what. What could it have been? There was very little that made sense, and the only thing Gary could figure off would have been not to kill Shadow.

Impossible as it seemed, he was almost certain that it was that, though had he been asked he would have been unable to explain why. 

Danea, who had just finished her phone call, turned toward him and nodded slightly, confirming his doubts, yet giving him no explanations as to the why of it. He just had no way to explain why Ash would go out of his way to protect someone who seemingly was after killing him, destroying a town just to do that ? There was an answer, one that explained why Ash would have done it, and why Shadow would have reacted as she had to seeing Ash on the ground, but it seemed so impossible, so far removed from reality and the world of things that could be that Gary stopped thinking about the whole thing. 

It was after many unquiet hours sitting in the waiting room of the great hospital that one of the doctor who had taken Ash in earlier came to see them, his white hair somehow reflecting the fiery light of the fading sun that could be seen in the window, now that the savage storm had ended and that the howling wind had cleared away the clouds.

"He's going to be alright. He was lucky tough. If that brick had hit him just slightly higher or slightly lower, he'd be dead by now. As it is, we're going to have to keep him here for the night...one of you can stay with him until he wake up."

The six of them hesitated for a while, then Danea spoke. 

"Well, after that fight I really need to sleep..." she explained. "I think you should stay though." She added, pointing at Shadow, who had not yet removed her hood nor her mask as if somehow reluctant to reveal her true self.

"I think I will." Shadow answered. "Thank you." She added. Brock seemed torn between not wishing to leave Shadow alone with Ash and extreme tiredness, but he finally agreed with Danea. "I think I'll trust Danea as to what she said about you...but you'd better not prove her wrong." He growled, an hint of steel in his eyes.

"Don't worry" Shadow answered sadly. "I'd rather kill myself than harm him...now." she added, shaking her head slowly.

Todd nodded slowly, and so did Richie as they followed Danea outside and left Gary and Shadow alone in the waiting room facing each other.

"You know." She told him. "Don't you?" she asked, and as she did Gary felt his suspicions strengthening. He nodded slowly. 

"I think so, yeah." He answered. "Take care of him...he's my only friend, and about everything I have in the world now." He added before leaving.

__________________________

She allowed herself a private smile as he left. Ash was far from the only thing that Gary had in the world, though it would take a long time for him to realize he had more friends now. And then, the smile faded as the memories of what she had done came back in a rush. She entered the room quietly and sat down on a chair by the bed.

She slowly pushed back the hood of her cloak and undid the knot that held the black mask fixed behind her head. Her orange-red hair, which had been held back by the cloak, fell down on her shoulders as she buried her eyes in her hands and wept. 

__________________________

A laughing dark face stared at him, again and again taunting him, letting him think he had a chance to save Misty, only to push her in the dark void of dead just before he could reach her. The figure kept laughing, an hollow, mysterious kind of laugh.

As light finally came in his eyes, it seemed he had slept for eons after the falling rubble had knocked him out. For a brief moment, he thought it was a pity that he as still alive, as he would still have to cope with Misty being dead, and he continued thinking so until he opened his eyes.

And as he did, the one vision he had hoped against hope to see appeared before him, the one person he had thought lost forever. The dark despair that had been in his heart ever since the fire suddenly vanished, swept away by a wave of hope, of renewal.

"Misty...you...you..." he started, at a loss for word. "So I'm dead? I never thought heaven would look that much like an hospital room..." he said jokingly.

A slow smile crept on Misty's lips as she looked at him. "Might be because this in an hospital room...But I have no idea..." she said, though Ash seemed to hear a faint touch of sadness hidden in her voice.

"Then...how come you're here? I mean...you're dead, aren't you? The fire?" he asked, though memories of the fight nagged at him, as if there was something he should remember about it.

She slowly put an hand on her shoulder and looked at him, her eyes somehow carrying the sense of deep emotional wounds. "No, I didn't die then Ash. I didn't...but sometime, I'd rather have died back then." She said slowly, and the words slowly seeped in his mind. 

She was alive, against all hope. They were both alive, they had made it despite everything. And they were together.

"You're alive...I...I...I can't believe it...It's just...so much..." He closed his eyes, the feeling of pure bliss overwhelming her. She was still alive, and this time, nothing would ever keep them apart again, he would make sure of that. He just couldn't take loosing her again. But there was that one thing, that one thing he had known and yet not known for so long, and only realized when he had thought he had lost everything.

"There's something I have to tell you Misty." He began. "When we all thought you were dead...when the tower collapsed...I realized..." He took a deep breath. "I mean...I realized...how...how much you mean...to me...I..." He gulped, knowing that he had already gone too far to go back. "I...well. I..." he stammered, but was interrupted as Misty gently put her finger in his lips.

"Shhhh." She whispered. "I know. And you mean a lot to me Ash." She said quietly, almost in a whispering tone. "When I saw you in the street...I felt like I had killed part of myself. And I wished very much I had died in that fire..." she slowly shook her head. As she did, Ash suddenly realized that she was clad in the same clothes that Shadow had worn, and his earlier suspicions came back to him.

"So I was right...that was you..." he shook his head slowly. "You were being controlled, weren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, but sill...I destroyed a town, nearly killed you..." she shook her head sadly. "I'd really rather have died in that fire." She said, and a few tears glistened in her eyes.

Ash moved his hand to brush the tears away from her eyes, and she looked at him, smiling through the tears. She put an hand on his shoulder.

"Misty...if I hadn't found you here today, I'd have killed myself as soon as Team Rocket was dealt with." He told her. "I'd have been dead, and you would have to. Now, we are both alive instead." He added. "And none of what Shadow did was you...it wasn't your fault Misty."

"I could have fought back...I did, but it wasn't enough...I tried my best Ash...I just...it was so awful! He controlled everything I did..." she said, shaking violently as the painful memories came to her like a blow. Ash tried to comfort her as best as he could. "I...I watched...I tried to fight back, but I couldn't do a thing...He just kept controlling me..." she continued her tale of horror. "When I woke up...well, when my mind woke up after being knocked out in the tower, he already controlled me...I never even saw him...by the time I woke up, I was already Shadow and already on the road to Ecruteak...I had no idea what was happening, only thing I knew was that I had no control over what I did...I was completely there, I could see, feel everything...but I had no control over what my body was doing." She said, putting her arms on the bed near him, then resting her head on them as she wept. Ash slowly caressed her hair in a comforting manner. "And we arrived at Ecruteak...and he used me to destroy the town when they wouldn't help me...I destroyed a whole town...just so that he could get his way..."

"It wasn't you...you had no control..." Ash protested, his hands still caressing her hair.

"No matter...I should have been in control..." she answered. "So many people without homes...because I couldn't control myself..." she continued weeping. "And I realized that he was after you then...and that if I wound up killing you...there was just no way I could live with that." She continued. "It was so horrible when he sent that shadow ball at you...I was so sure you would die..." her wet tears rolled down her arms on the hospital bedcovers. 

"But now, he's gone, and he won't come back...and we are together." Ash whispered in her hears, propping himself. "Together, and we won't be apart ever again." He told her. This time, he wouldn't let himself be interrupted. "I never realized it before...but I love you Misty." He told her, finally letting out the feeling that had been torturing him for the past weeks. 

"Well...I can't say I'm unhappy to hear that." She replied through the tears, a small smile creeping on her face. "I love you too Ash. But I don't know how you can love me after what I did..." she shook her head, as if denying that he could love her after the dark days that they had faced. 

"That wasn't you. That was whoever was controlling you, and that guy is going to pay for what he did." Ash muttered. "He tried to kill me, and destroy you at the same time. You, on the other hand, have been at my side since the very first day of my journey. You are the one who's been taunting me for days to no end for the last two years. And even with all the taunting...you are the only one I would give anything to have at my side." He said. Unvoiced was the fact that he had given much for her, what seemed a lifetime ago in the mill, apparently abandoning his life dream for her life.

She smiled, a truer, no longer sad smile that seemed like a new spring on her tear-streaked face. "Thank you Ash. I don't think we'll even be the same, either of us...but if you feel that strongly about me...If I decided to end it all, you'd kill yourself, wouldn't you?" the question hung in the air between the two of them. A few weeks ago, Ash would have thought that killing himself would be the last thing he would consider. Now, he knew better. 

"Yeah."

"Then I guess I'll have to face what happened." She said with a sight. "I can't let myself die...not when it means that you'll die too. I love you too much for that." She told him, and somehow managed to put herself in a position to hug him fiercely. "Thank you Ash...thank you." She whispered. "You just gave me something to live for."

He simply wrapped his arms around her as best as he could, content to hold her as an answer. For an irrational moment, he wished that time could stop, that they could remain in each other's arms until the last day of the world. But all too soon, there was a knock on the door, and the now-familiar voice of Danea. 

"Ash? Can we come in?" she asked, and without waiting, opened the door. Misty and Ash barely managed to break their embrace in time, and they returned to their position, Ash lying down on the bed, and Misty sitting on the nearby chair.

Danea was first to enter the room, and she smiled briefly as she saw that Misty no longer hide her true identity. Ash could only guess that she had guessed the truth during their psychic duel, and that she had broken the mind control instead of killing. Next was Gary, who looked first at Ash, then at Misty, with very little in the way of surprise on his faces. 

"So, did you know?" Misty asked him with a grin after he entered, though Ash had no idea what this was all about.

"Yep." He replied. "Between Ash's reaction and what Danea said, it made sense..." he explained.

He moved out of the doorway to let the door in - and where Danea's and Gary's reaction had not been a reaction of surprise, far from it, their, however was. Brock was first to break the stunned silence.

"I...of all things...How did..." he started to say, apparently unable to formulate his thoughts clearly. "It's great to see you again Misty." He finally said, breaking through the stunned amazement.

"Yeah!" Todd nodded. "I dunno how you managed to make it through everything and find yourself as Shadow, but I'm sure glad you are back." Todd added.

"Definitely...and as for the Shadow thing...none of us blame you for what happened. Danea told us about the mind control thing...we're all with you." Richie finished. "That's what friends are for, isn't it?" 

"Thanks guys...I'm glad to be back with you too..." She turned toward Danea. "And thank you Danea...for freeing me." She said quietly. 

Ash smiled as he reached out and took her hand. She turned toward him and smiled back, and he couldn't help but think that for once things had taken a definite turn for the better instead of a turn for the worst.

Chapter 24 : Returning Enemies

The storm was raging outside the small tower in the middle of the Silver Mountains. The tower had been built eons ago, and had long served as a gathering point for the servants of the night. From time to time, a brilliant flash of lightning would illuminate the night sky, and shortly after the roar of thunder would be heard. Garbed in his ceremonial black robe, Setras almost wished the lightning that danced around the temple would stop. Not that he was afraid of something as simple as a thunderstorm, simply he did not want to see what was around him. In the middle of the room, the fire crackled, and he knew the presence within was awaiting him.

Setras wondered what the Lord of the Stars wanted with him, why it was that he had be summoned before him by a pair of lowly under-priests. Hopefully, it would have nothing to do with his trying to net his master an advantage in the events that would soon come - hopefully, he had heard nothing of that yet, and would not hear of it until it was too late for him to do a thing about it. It had been his daughter's idea, really, to try to obtain an advantage for their Master in the very close battle, but his attempt at doing so had failed. And the Master, who was too honorable for his own good, would not like the idea at all. As he came closer to the fire, a face appeared inside, a face dark as ash.

"Setras...What have you done?" the figure asked sadly. "I trusted you not to disrupt what MUST be."

"But my lord...I was only trying to serve you as best as I can..." he protested, shaking. Disobedience was not something his master was too fond off.

"You have disobeyed me Setras. You have, in fact, failed me." The answer was frosty.

"But...I only sought to make it easier for you to win that most important battle..." Setras sais meekly.

"And you would throw awry a thousand year of preparation for that? Be thankful your plan failed Setras. Had they not, you would be dead on the spot." The voice was low and threatening. "The nine are not to be harmed until the day of the meeting, and if there is any harming them to be done, I'll do it. Do not interfere again Setras." The voice was steely.

"You shouldn't trust him Great One..." a voice said from the door of the shrine room. Setras' daughter walked slowly in the room, her flowing black hair hard to distinguish from her robe. "Who know? Maybe he serves your twisted brother..." she suggested to the figure.

"True..." The figure in the fire slowly whispered. "If he was to cause chaos by disrupting the prophecies, only my brother and his foul master would benefit." The fire flared brighter.

"Great One! She was the one who set me up to it! She did!" Setras yelled in desperation.

"Oh, really...father, is that the best lie you can come up with? That's a pitiful defense..." she said scornfully. "Admit it...maybe the master can be persuaded to be nice toward you." She smiled. "A quick and painless death is better than the torture you'd have to suffer for lying to him.

"But...I did not..."

"He is pathetic, isn't he, Master?" Syraelle asked of the figure. "Even when his dark plot have been laid bare, he continue to lie to us, to pretend that we are the ones lying."

"True, my daughter." The figure admitted. "Setras, why? Why have you gone over to my twisted brother?" he said, with the pained voice of a father whose son had been found smoking, or taking drugs. "You know I can't allow you to live now..." the voice was sad now - beyond sad.

As the eternal fire reached up toward him, slowly conquering his body, Setras screamed. The pain was unbearable, and when he passed out to die, he felt only relief.

________________________________

Miles and miles away, the city of Olivine was under a bright early autumn sky, and not a dark stormy day. Ash and Misty walked slowly along the beach, alone, sharing a moment of peace and tranquility before leaving the city again on their quest to find Team Rocket. Misty had her left arm wrapped around Ash, and Ash's right arm was around her shoulders as they walked closely side by side. As they looked at the water before them, the vast expense of the Inner Sea a single tear rolled down Ash's cheek to fall in the sand. 

"Ash? What is it?" Misty asked, concerned about the way he was acting suddenly.

"Nothing…it's just…last time I just stood there and just looked at water, it was after your funeral…when I thought I'd never see you again…never get the chance to tell you that I loved you."

"Oh. I'm sorry..." She drew him close to her. "I didn't know...it was still so painful for you..." her whisper was barely audible as she pushed his hat out of the way and gently caressed his hair.

"Well…I think what's worst is that I'm afraid of loosing you again…of being without you." He answered, slowly wrapping his arms around her.

"Don't ever be afraid of that Ash…I won't leave you. Never." She said softly, before bringing him closer to her and lightly kissing him. Ash tightened his hold, and his lips met hers in a long kiss. Misty felt as if she was flying, as if nothing was holding her down on earth now, then as they slowly separated, she felt gravity dragging her back again, but just as she was about to hit the ground, he kissed her again, and she forgot all about thinking for a while, just content to be with him, and that they would never be apart again.

________________________

"The question is, how do we get back at them?" Damian asked, his faces like a dark storm. "There's only two of us, and they got the whole of team Rocket backing them. We'll need allies."

"Great job Sherlock." Elayne answered sarcastically.

"Hey! Why'd you make fun of me?" Damian protested with a smile.

"Isn't making fun of her boyfriend part of the job of a girl?" she asked innocently, and came to sit close to him. "I know you want to get your father back, but sitting there and doing nothing isn't going to do us much good Damian."

"I know." He answered soberly. Elayne sighed and put one of her arm on his shoulders. 

"I love you." She whispered softly.

"And I love you. But that doesn't help with our problem…how do we get back at them…it's not like we can say it in the newspapers or anything…" he smiled. "That would make a pretty sight…"help Team Rocket Boss" printed in every newspapers of Johto and Kanto."

She smiled slightly.

"That wouldn't be a good idea." She admitted. "But still…"

"I know." 

He sat back down in his chair, and picked up a week old newspaper that was sitting on the floor rolled, waiting. He started reading through it, wondering what had happened since they had withdrawn to the out of the way house. Elayne went out regularly to buy food and sometime brought the newspapers back with her, but he hadn't bothered to read them much lately. As he looked through the pages, an article drew his attention because of the familiar picture besides it.

"There was a fire in Violet?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah…what's wrong with that?" Elayne answered.

He kept silent, reading through the articles then let out a choked cry, a few tiny tears falling down his cheeks as he read about one of the few person who had ever cared about it to the point that they would treat him as a human being, and as he found out about her death.

"Why? What's wrong Damian?" she asked suddenly, holding him protectively.

"That girl who died in the fire…" he started, shaking violently. "She…she's"

"Yeah, what about her? You knew her?" her question came a bit sharp as far as he was concerned. He had just lost one of the most important person in his life, and he was supposed to bother to explain everything?

"Yeah…" he answered slowly. "I knew her. Before I found out about my father…"

"Really?"

"Yeah…I knew her for a long while."

"Oh…Where did you met her?" she asked in a comforting tone.

"I think the first time I saw her was the day I was born…" he answered slowly, his faces tear-streaked. "She's - was - my twin sister."

________________________

"You have a twin brother?" Ash looked at Misty in stunned amazement.

"Yeah..." she admitted. "I dunno why I never told you before..."

"Why wasn't he there when we went to Cerulean - either time?" the question came quickly to his lips, as there was no way he could understand.

"He ran away from home when we were ten...I haven't heard from him ever since..." she admitted, and Ash looked at her in surprise. "I know he's still somewhere...when I left, it was to get away from my sister, but I also hoped to find him...Maybe when it's all over we could try to find him together?" she asked slowly. "I know you want to be a pokemon master, but..." she left it hanging.

Ash hesitated for only a second, and then he made his choice. Being a pokemon master was his dream, and he wanted to fulfill it...but Misty was his life, and didn't want to loose her. 

"We'll look for him together." He told her softly, holding her hand. "And we'll find him."

"What about your dream?"

"The last few weeks made me realize that there's more to life than being a pokemon master. As long as I'm with you, I don't care whether I am a pokemon master of the worst trainer."

Suddenly, they heard someone calling for them - at least, they thought it was them, since there was no one else on the beach at that time, as the sun slowly came down in a stunning sunset.

"Hey you!" the yell came from a blue-haired guy to their left. Slightly behind him, a girl with fiery red hair was looking down on the ground. Ash went toward them, and he heard Misty sighing and muttering something like "At least there's no cross-dressing today..." But he couldn't be sure of what she said.

"Did you call me?" Ash asked them, is hands on Charizard's pokeball, while Pikachu, who had been playing not too far from them, looked at the group curiously.

"Yeah...my sister here lost her lenses...could you help her look for them? Maybe that Pikachu of yours could..." she started.

"Stop it James!" Misty told him, her eyes glowing in the night, sending out both her Seadra and Starmie at once. "I know it's the two of you, so just go away." Her smile was dangerously frosty.

"No...my name's Derek...I don't know who this James is..." the man replied, obviously shaken.

"Cut it James! How did you recognize us, twerp?" Jessie asked, throwing away the long coat that kept hidden the all-too-familiar Rocket outfit. 

"I don't think I'd like for you to know that." Misty replied frostily. "None of your business. Starmie, thunder wave on Jessie. Seadra, uses your Ice Beam on James." She ordered calmly, and the two attack went off. The two of them jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the elemental strikes.

"Them again..." Ash muttered, sending out Charizard.

"How DARE you!" Jessie yelled as the electric blast from Starmie struck her hair, sending crackling energy trough them. "ARBOK! LICKITUNG! GO!" she yelled at the top of her lung.

"She's right! Weezing! Victreebell! You guys take them out!" James added, sending out his own pokemon.

"Dat's Right!" Meowth added in his unmistakable voice as he appeared to join the fight.

"Seems like you twerps are at a disadvantage...five on four. We win." Jessie said in a cocky tone.

"I wouldn't be so quick to think that." A new voice added from somewhere off to the left. "Let's see how you handle these." The voice added, and two pokeball beam appeared, releasing an enormous Gyarados and a much smaller Eevee. Gary smirked at the Rockets as the two of them glared at him.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" Jessie asked.

"As Misty put it, none of your business. Gyarados, why don't you show them your stomp attack? And you Eevee, just bite them where it hurts." Gary ordered.

"Victreebell! Uses your Razor Leaf attack on that Gyarados!" the order came from James. "Weezing, take on that Charizard with Sludge!" the order came.

"Charizard, fly to avoid the attack then dive at him! Pikachu, thunderbolt on Weezing!" Ash ordered in reply.

"Lickitung! Uses your lick attack to paralyze Pikachu! Arbok, poison sting on them all!" the order came from Jessie.

"I'll take on dat Eevee!" Mewoth yelled, charging at the little brown creature, all claws drawn and ready to strike.

"Starmie, thunderwave on Jessie and James. Seadra, Ice Beam on Arbok." Misty ordered, burning fury in her eyes.

The eleven pokemons glared at each others, ready to fight, and approached each other warily. Meowth was first to take action, jumping toward Eevee, all claws drawn, and swiftly striking at the creature. Eevee narrowly dodged the attack off to the right and jumped behind Meowth, biting his tail viciously. Weezing fired a wave of dark matter toward Charizard who easily dodged by flying high above, then diving back toward the ground at high speed, striking the poison ball head on with his two horns.

Arbok jumped high in the air, and fired thousands of little poisonous stings at the defending pokemon, but instead of attacking Jessie and James as she had been ordered, Starmie fired a wall of electricity between the poisonous snake and her allies. None of the sting came through, and the retaliating Ice Beam from Seadra went right through the defenses, freezing the helpless snake in place. Pikachu's Thunderbolt attack took Weezing at full strenght, and the pokemon, already weakened by Charizard's dive, fell to the ground helpless. However, just as Ash was about to shout in victory, the chilling vision of Lickitung's awful tongue wrapping itself around Pikachu presented itself, and before he could do a thing, the poor rodent was paralyzed.

In the meantime, Meowth was still trying to get rid of the Eevee that had attached herself to his tail, desperately swinging it, or trying to, in order to do so. Gyarados was charging wildly around, swatting the Rocket pokemon with his great tail, and sending the already fainted Weezing rocketing toward the horizon. 

With a shattering sound, Arbok broke free of his icy prison, sending waves of poison sting at their pokemon, all the sharp tiny stings catching the light as they flew toward their target. The great Gyarados stopped his swatting as he slowly reared, then felt with a heavy thud in the soft sand. Struck in the middle of her attempt at getting up a thunder wave defense, Starmie also fell down, but managed to find the strength to fire one last paralyzing burst of electricity at Lickitung, stopping him as he was about to swing his tongue at Eevee. 

Ash glanced at the situation, looking at the pokemon that were still ready to fight. On the Rocket side, Arbok, Meowth and Victreebell were still standing, while Pikachu, Starmie and Gyarados were out of commission, leaving only Charizard, Seadra and Eevee on their sides, and a situation that didn't seem half as good as it had been only seconds earlier.

"All's fair in love, war, and pokemon fighting." He whispered, remembering the line that James had used during their fight in Viridian Forest so long ago. "Pidgeot! Go!" He yelled, releasing the magnificent bird to join the battle, soon joined by Misty's Lapras. Seeing as how they were launching all they had in the battle, Gary grinned and picked up two more pokeballs. "Let's add to that...Arcanine! Nidoking! Go!" he yelled suddenly, releasing the two of them. At the same time, the giant lizard-like horned beast and the fierce fire dog appeared in the middle of the battle field, one stamping his left foot in the ground, the other shaking his great mane.

"Hey! No fair!" James protested. "Pokemon fight aren't supposed to be seven on three!"

"You should have thought of that in Viridian, the first time we battled." Ash replied smirking. He had fought by the rules against them too long, and now he would fight by their own rulebook. "Pidgeot, Charizard, just deal with them." He ordered bitterly. "Make sure they don't get away, though." He added, a plan suddenly forming in his mind.

"Right!" Misty answered. "Lapras! Use a surf on them!" she ordered, and Ash wondered why she wasn't ordering Seadra to attack.

"Arcanine, Fire blast on that Arbok. Let's take it out for real this time." Gary ordered, a smirk on his lips. "Nidoking, fire an horn drill at that Lickitung." He then added, and Ash recoiled from the order he had given...even with his recent decision to break the one pokemon rule, he wasn't really ready to fall back on the one-hit knock-out moves. 

Lapras summoned an enormous wave of water that fell on Team Rocket, surrounding them, but somehow as it fell, Ash had an idea. "Pidgeot! Use your whirlwind in the middle of that wave! Be sure not to hit Team Rocket with it, though!" he yelled. The great bird, who was about to engage Victreebel moved off to instead do that, sending the water spiraling upward around Team Rocket, in a kind of cone that came from teh ground and up, a huge spiraling mass of water. Misty smiled.

"All right! Seadra, ice beam the water! She ordered, and the spear of ice struck the huge column of water, freezing it over in a matter of moment, with Jessie and James trapped inside. In the meantime, Nidoking launched a tremendous charge at Lickitung, his drill rotating at high speed as he approached and tried to spear the poor beast with it. Yet at the last moment, Lickitung managed to dive out of the way, and the great dinosaur roared in frustration. But before the small pokemon could celebrate his victory, he was taken up in the sky by the massive draconic form of Charizard, and dropped unceremoniously on the ground from high above, easily fainting.

At that point, the battle was pretty much over. With the help of Charizard and Pidgeot, Eevee easily delt with Meowth, who was then dropped inside the frozen column with his companions. Left alone, Arbok made a valiant stand, using his dreaded stings to take Eevee out of the fight, then shortly after Charizard, but after that, the combined attacks of Pidgeot, Arcanine, Nidoking, Lapras and Seadra proved too much and he crashed down on the ground, defeated.

They gathered at the feet of the quickly melting pillar, and waited for Team Rocket to be free of it, surrounding them with their pokemon. Gary released his Nidoqueen and Dodrio to help with their siege, and as the pillar vanished at last, they were ready to intercept the trio of criminal.

"Uh...aren't you supposed to send us blasting off again?" Jessie asked, confused.

"Not until you tell us where your headquarters are, no." Misty replied, frostily. "We haven't forgiven you for that mill things..."

Jessie and James looked at each other for a long time, as if debating without a word on an important question. Ash looked at them, puzzled, wondering what they could be thinking about. Apparently, Meowth had no idea what was going on either.

"We aren't going to tell u dat!" he whined, before being hit on the head by a fan. Ash looked in surprise at Jessie and James.

"Actually, we're going to talk." James said suddenly. "More than that. I didn't like that mill thing at all."

"Neither did I." Jessie nodded, and they looked at each other.

"We've both had enough of the boss. This time, Team Rocket's not going to blast off again." James said slowly, as if trying to strengthen himself to allow him to walk the path he had just chosen.

"Yeah. We're quitting." Jessie said simply. "The headquarter is in the forest between Pallet and Viridian, by the way." She added. "Maybe we'll see you there. We have a few things to talk over with the boss." She added.

They all stared at each other for a while, each of them, a different feeling in his eyes. Misty's eyes carried pity, or maybe sympathy - she knew what they were going through, the feeling of having done so much wrong, despite being forced to it - though less so in their cases than in her case. His own feelings were closer to hatred, but a memory of only a few months earlier crept back in his mind, a memory of the two of them coming to help him in the Shamuti Islands, and of them letting go of Lugia to give him a chance to reach safety. 

And Gary's eyes mirrored pure hatred, an hatred fueled by the loss of Duplica, but somehow there was something else in his eyes, too. Something different.

"After all you've done to us..." he started, and the two Rockets recoiled. "We could kill you, and I don't think to many people would find much to say about that...but I don't know...it feels as if someone was forcing me to trust you. I'll let Ash and Misty choose what to do with you two."

"I don't know. After the mill, I feel like dealing with you two once and for all...but on the other hand, when you said you would help, you held true to your word - in the Shamuti islands, against Butch and Cassidy in the Orange Islands...If you say you are out of Team Rocket, I say we leave you alone." He finally decided. Misty nodded.

"I know how hard it is to go back and live with what you've done...Good luck, both of you." She told them slowly. "Hopefully, we'll meet again."

Chapter 25 : Shades of Gray

The SS Queen of Aqua had been at sea for three days, having left Olivine toward Vermilion city. Todd and Brock sat on the main deck, looking at the sea as they planned their next move, how to hut down Team Rocket once they reached Vermilion. None of their strategy before Misty's apparent death and unexpected return had succeeded and they were at a loss of ideas as to what to do.

"Weren't you the genius who planned our attack on that mill?" Brock asked Todd in disgust after yet another fruitless hour of thinking.

"Yeah, but that was different. Give me the plan of a place, the forces in presence, and I give you a good attack plan. Don't ask me to plan how to sweep an area that huge with only two guys doing the sweeping." He replied bitterly. "Best idea is to wander from place to place...I'm sure we'll run in someone who would be able to help..."

"That'll take a lot of time." Brock noted.

"If you have a better plan..." the answer was not in a very pleasant tone. "I know it's not perfect, it's just the best we can come up with so far."

"True." Brock nodded soberly. So far, all the plans they had come up with were far more impractical than that one, as impractical as it was. He sighed, knowing there was nothing more they could come up with at that point and that they would have to think more on the matter before coming up with any plans. "Did the others tell you what they were planning to do?" he asked instead.

"Gary mentioned some vacations in Olivine before we left. A few weeks, he said." The younger man answered. !"They can do the same luring job there, and they can also give Ash and Misty some rest...the two of them definitely needs it." Todd shook his head sadly.

"True. And some time together without worrying about things too, I noticed." He grinned.

"You saw that too?" Todd smiled back.

"Who didn't?"

"Sounds reasonable to me...I..." he started to tell, but was interrupted by shouting coming from the front of the ship.

"Why don't you save yourself some trouble and give us your pokemon?" An unfamiliar voice asked, that of a Rocket agent doubtlessly, from what she was saying.

"You can't win against us...we can have the whole of Team Rocket after you." Another voice, that of another woman, surprisingly seeing as most Team Rocket strike teams were made of a man and a woman.

"Geez, I'm scared. I've just been fighting off you pathetic Rockets weaklings for the last year or so." The voice was extremly sarcastic. "Espeon, psychic them off the boat." The woman voice added.

"An espeon. Like you were going to beat us with that." The voice was that of the first woman. "Raticate, bite that pitiful beast." She sounded full of scorn.

"Let's go see what's happening..." Todd told Brock as they both raced toward the rear of the ship, their hands on their pokeballs.

"Right." He nodded quickly.

They reached the back of the ship just in time to see three more pokemon appearing on the battlefield sent by a duo of woman in black clothes with the telltale R on the chest. Between them and the familiar-looking young woman in white standing by her Espeon, a Raticate and an Umbreon seemed ready to fight. The white-clothed young woman sighed and sent out another pokemon, a magnificent long blue serpent like creature, with great wings on both sides of its head and a pearly white horn protruding from it. The tail and the neck were adorned with saphirre-like jewels "Dragonair, why don't you give Espeon a hand." She said smiling.

"Oh, you think you'll beat us, uh? Well, let us just do our motto and..." one of the woman said, her blonde hair catching the light of the sun so that it seemed to shine just like the hair of movie heroes would do, though she was no hero. 

"Prepare for Trouble and Make it Double!" They said together, their voices rising on the exact same inflection.

"To bring all guys' hearts to devastation!" The blonde whispered softly, looking at the two of them and batting her eyelash.

"To unite the girls of every nation" The others added, directing a much fiercer look at the two of them.

"To denounce the evil of a man's love!" The blonde smirked at them.

"And to extend our own to the star's above!" The red-hair smiled at her comrade, a smile that carried somehow the feeling that the two of them definitely weren't just friends.

"Thelma!" the blonde shouted triumphantly. 

"Louise" the voice of the second was soft, the voice of a seductress as she said her name.

"Team Rocket, drowning the world in eternal night!"

"Surrender now..." Louise started, talking to the young woman in the white clothes.

"Girls, girls, girls. How often did I tell you not to waste surprise effect for a stupid motto?" a voice said from the deck above, that of an older woman. The two young rocket pulled closer to each other as they looked in fright at the woman.

"But...miss Felicity..." one protested "We only wanted..."

"To show off." The so-named Felicity completed. "And that's not the way to become good agents."

"But...Butch and Cassidy and Jessie and James do it all the time..." Louise noted.

"Butch and Cassidy have the worst track record of team rocket for the amount of time spent in prison." The agent explained patiently, though it was obvious from her voice that she was tired of having to repeat the same things over and over again. "Jessie and James have the worst mission success rate of all Rocket commandos. They've been spending two years trying to get a pikachu from a kid. Does that sounds like the kind of thing a true Rocket agent would do?"

The two of them hesitated, then looked at each other and stormed out in anger, recalling their pokemon as they did so. The older woman walked down the stair and turned toward the three of them - the white-clothed young woman, Brock and Todd - with a smile. 

"I assume we are all going to be civil here?" she asked, waiting for the answer of the young woman in white clothes as well as that of Brock and Todd, letting them know through her stare that she had noticed the fact that they were about to intervene in the battle. Finally, the three of them slowly nodded. "Good. I'm not after a fight, far from it." She added. "I was just taking these two idiots on vacations...I don't care much for the orders coming out of the Rocket headquarter these days so..." she was suddenly interrupted by two bright beam of ruby light as a Raticate and a Umbreon materialized in the middle of them, soon accompanied by an Houndour and a Koffing. She sighed at the four pokemon came out. "Girls, what did I tell you?"

"We'll beat you Felicity! And those friends of yours as well!" Thelma yelled in defiance from the upper deck.

"Right." The tone of Felicity's voice was empty, though one had no problem imagining the volume of sarcasm she carefully kept out of it. "Can you guys handle these pests? I'd deal with them, but I'm afraid their mothers - and mine - wants me to avoid hurting them, so..." she smiled.

"You can bet we will." The woman answered. "Right, Brock?" she asked, and Brock recoiled in surprise as he recognized her.

"Suzie? That's you?" he suddenly asked.

"Can we wait for the happy reunion until later?" Todd pointed out, calling out his only pokemon, Dragonite. Brock rapidly picked two of his pokeballs and threw them in the middle of the battlefield.

"Geodude! Vulpix! I choose you!" he called out as he summoned the fire fox and the boulder pokemon. Zubat was too weak to do much in a fight like that and Steelix too heavy for Brock to call him during a battle on a ship. Suzie smiled, and watched as her Espeon joined the ranks of attackers. She readied a second pokeball, and called out its denizen.

"Vaporeon! I choose you!" she smiled as the water evolution of Eevee joined her psychic brethren. 

"So you guys want to fight?" one of the two asked from above, though Brock could not really tell which.

"Sure seems so to me." The reply was sarcastic, as Felicity abandoned her previous pretense at neutrality.

"All right." The voice this time was undeniably Louise's. "Umbreon. Faint Attack, then bite that Espeon. Arbok. Wrap that Vaporeon out of the way."

"Houndour, use fire blast on that Vulpix!" Thelma ordered. "Raticate, Hyper Fang on Dragonite." The next order came.

There was little time to think once the battle had begun, so Brock decided to go with feeling rather than thinking things through. Geodude's Earthquake attack would obviously be useless on a ship, so that meant rock slide would do, while Vulpix, being a fire type, was not particularly strong or weak against any of them. "Vulpix, fire spin that Raticate! Geodude, Rock Slide on that Houndour!" he ordered.

Todd didn't hesitate before ordering Dragonite to perform an outrage attack on the ennemy, while Suzie was quick to order Vaporeon to uses a bubblebeam on Houndour and Espeon to perform a psychic attack on Arbok.

Chaos broke out as Raticate, jumping to bite Dragonite with his huge fangs, was met by the armored wing of the flying dragon, which then slashed at the beast face, sending it reeling it back at the foot of the stairway that lead to the upper dock. Houndour fired a roaring wave of fire at Vulpix who nimbly dodged the blast, somehow redirecting the flames in a great spin that encircled Umbreon, or at least tried to. However, just as they were about to hit, the dark pokemon vanished from view and the flames died.

Espeon directed a powerful purple beam of psychic energy at the Arbok who somehow managed to dive to safety, but as he did so, he of course failed to wrap the Vaporeon in his coils. Vaporeon thus had no problem firing its bubble beam at the Houndour, who recoiled and faltered as the bubble gathered around him, slowing him down.

Seeing that the battle wasn't going too well for them, with Raticate out of comission and Houndour wounded, the two girls above seemed to hesitate before giving a new set of order, but their pokemon didn't wait before rushing in for another wave of attack. They, unlike their trainers, knew that a delay would seal their doom.

The Houndour, though slowed down, managed to hide in the shadows, using a faint attack of its own, while Umbreon appeared from behind Espeon to bite her. The psychic pokemon wailed then shuddered before falling to the ground, defeated. Arbok, without the benefits of a faint attack, had still managed to sneak in close enough to wrap his coils around Vaporeon, but Vulpix whirled, letting loose a stream of flame that knocked the serpent down while barely damaging Vaporeon.

The now revealed Umbreon was faced with problems as well, as Dragonite drove his powerful fist right in the stomach of the dark pokemon, while Geodude, who had been too slow to hit the houndour, threw itself at the Umbreon, slowly strangling it with it's two stony arms,

The two girls upstairs easily realized how grim the situation was for their side as their pokemon were slowly getting butchered by those of Brock, Suzie and Todd. Yet, there was little they could do but watch and hope for a sudden reversal of fortune. Off to the side, Felicity grinned as the battle unfolded before her eyes.

Houndour struck out of the shadow, latching itself on Dragonite's back, biting him behind the neck. Dragonite reared his head and wailed then slowly, pounderously crashed down on the ground with a sound like thunder, defeated by a single attack. As he jumped off the falling dragon, Houndour suddenly glowed brightly, evolving all of a sudden in a deadly houndoom as the two girls above yelled. Brock shuddered - even with Vaporeon and Geodude both having a sizeable type advantage, winning the battle would prove hard.

The sky overhead, which had been rather cloudy, suddenly cleared, and the sun shone with an unparalleled brightness. Brock used one hand to shield his eyes, and noticed Todd, Felicity and Suzie doing the same. He wondered for a brief moment, then noticed the newly evolved houndoom howling, and realized with a gasp what was happening - a sunny day attack. Which meant that the type advantage of both Geodude and Vaporeon had suddenly been reversed.

The Houndoom howled again, and as he lowered his head, a bright spark of sunlight glowed in his mouth. The spark jumped forward, becoming a deadly beam that took Vaporeon in the head, sending the water Eevee sliding toward the other end of the deck. Geodude launched a charge toward the dark hound, but his speed simply didn't allow him to reach his target in time as the beast turned and let out another powerful solar beam that sent the rock pokemon down on the ground. Brock looked around - now, it was a one on one fight, and as brave as Vulpix was, Brock doubted she had any chance of taking out the Houndour. Zubat wouldn't help in any way, and Steelix was too heavy to join the fight. Todd has no other pokemon, and Suzie shrugged helplessly, telling him she had no other pokemon to send.

Vulpix, however, had not given up the fight, far from it. Determinate to oppose the dark pokemon, she dove under his head, sliding down then jumping to bite the unprotected belly. The dark type bellowed in pain, then shook violently, sending the fire fox sliding. Vulpix, however, was not about to give up, and she jumped back to her feet. Off to the side, Felicity smiled, and threw something on the deck, though Brock could not really see what it was. Vulpix looked at it briefly, then a vicious grin split her face as she recognized the object. She rushed toward the strange stone, and as she reached it, Brock finally realized what it was.

The instant she touched the fire stone, Vulpix body started to glow as she grew, her tails splitting. When the glow faded, the red-brown fire fox had vanished, replaced by a pure white creature of magnificent beauty, a ninetales. The two fire dogs faced each other, their eyes locked and ready to engage in battle. Houndoom eyes were cold and cruel, where Ninetales were shrewd, and glowing like embers. Ninetales, unsurprisingly, moved first, with a powerful agility attack, racing circle around the larger fire dog, suddenly stopping behind him to fire a beam of flashing light toward the dark hound. The great dog reeled, looking around confusedly. 

Ninetales watched emotionlessly as the Houndoom ran in circle, apparently not realizing where it was, stumbling on various obstacles, and hitting itself on the head more than once. All it took was a single wall that the great hound struck a bit more violently than the other it has ran in so far, and he faltered then finally fell down, defeated. Bright beams of red light appeared, recalling the four fainted pokemon. At the same time, Brock finally recalled his geodude and watched as his ninetales was left alone on the battlefield, the other three pokemon having been recalled by their trainers earlier during the battle.

The fox pokemon slowly trotted close to him and rubbed her head against his leg affectionately. Suzie watched the two with a small smile as Brock patted the magnificent beast on the head. Brock heard the sound of footsteps quickly fading away on the upper floor as the two rocket fled, and as he tried very hard not to think about Suzie being there.

Fortunately, he was saved before he could make a fool of himself as Felicity called them over to her. 

"I'm sorry about that." She told them, then looked in particular at Todd and Brock. "So, how close do you think you are?" she asked, and Brock wondered what she was talking about.

"What?" Todd asked, his face puzzled.

"Well, how close do you think you are to fulfilling that oath of yours?" She added. "I was on Leman island during that mill fiasco, and I was curious about what you do, so I kinda spied on you during the funerals. I can tell you one thing. The boss never ordered anything like that. I'm close enough to him to know that he'd never goes for low tricks like what they did." She shook her head.

"I find that hard to believe." Brock countered. "You Rockets *are* a criminal group...and you're telling me you won't kill people or kidnap them, or any such?" His voice was disbelieving. 

"I'm not asking you to believe me. Just telling you what things are like." She replied. "And I'm not going to tell you were the headquarters are, so don't bother asking." She smiled. "It shouldn't be too hard to find it, though. At least soon it shouldn't be." She finished, then rose and walked away, leaving two puzzled young men and an extremely puzzled young woman.


	6. Part 6 : Darkened Home

Part 6 : Darkened Home

Chapter 26 : The Third Companion

They silently watched the departing Rocket member, Todd feeling very suspicious, yet not, about what they had just been told. One side of him believed her for no reason at all, while the other just couldn't bring itself to believe what she had told them, opposing the feelings of the first half with cold logic.

"So Brock...it's been a while." Suzie said behind them. Brock turned while Todd continued staring off at the empty sky, wondering how much of Felicity's words had been the truth and how much lies.

"Err...well...y...yeah..." Brock seemed to be unable to find the words.

Suzie smiled. "You haven't changed much, I see."

"Nei...neither...have...have you..." Brock continued is attempts at intelligently replying. 

__

[i]And I thought he was bad around Nurse Joy and officer Jenny[/i] The reflection came to Todd mind as his friend continued making a fool of himself. 

"So, what have you been up to?" Suzie asked Brock.

"Well...we...we've been..." Brock started, a moment before Todd decided to answer instead so that they could go somewhere.

"We've been hunting down the rockets. Because they killed one of our friends and kidnapped Ash and Misty. We got them back, but they killed that friend of ours during the rescue." He answered matter-of-factly.

"Team Rocket." She growled. "Them again." 

"You've had problems with them?" he asked her.

"Yeah...They want me to go help them with some breeding project of theirs. They've been trying to get me to do that, and trying to steal my pokemon most of the rest of the time."

"But...when did...when did you get all those pokemon?" Brock asked, and Todd noticed from the tome of his voice that he was finally starting to stop acting like an idiot.

"I left to get more experience with pokemon, remember? I decided the best way to do that was to try my hand at becoming a real trainer." She smiled. "So I went, collected pokemon, got some gym badges, that sort of things." she completed.

"Really?" Brock asked in surprise. "How far did you get?" he asked her. 

She slowly reached up in one of her pocket and drew a little wallet-like container, then opened it, revealing a set of badges Brock had never seen before. "I collected all the Johto League Badges." She smiled. "Kanto was too familiar a place for me...I wanted to try a more exotic place." She then flipped one of the pages of the containers, revealing a single silver badge, larger than the others, with a flame-like figure chiseled in the center. It was as he watched the strange yet somehow familiar badge that he noticed the strange saphir-adorned ring on her left hand ring finger. It was far from a common sight, but also something everyone in the world would be able to recognize - would it only be because the blue gemstone was shaped like a pokeball. The ring of an official pokemon master. "I also won the Johto League tournament and defeated their elite four." She smiled.

"Is there a thing you aren't good at?" Brock asked, his stunned amazement apparently shocking him back in normal speech pattern. 

"I don't think it's talent or any such. It's just that when I want to do something, I'll work really hard to succeed at it. That's what I did with breeding, and I did the same with training." She said, not in a gloating tone, but rather in a simple, normal tone. "Now maybe we could go to the pokemon center to get our pokemon healed? She asked, and Todd nodded, followed by Brock half a second later.

They continued talking as they walked toward the ship pokemon center, though it was mostly Suzie talking about her journey so far, and what she had done. In addition to her Espeon and Vaporeon, she had a dratini as well as a Bellossom, a Jolteon and a Eevee with her.

"I don't know yet if I want a Umbreon or a Flareon for my last pokemon." She added as they entered the center. "I'll have to make up my mind soon, though." She noted as she deposed the pokeballs of her two wounded pokemon on the counter. 

"But you haven't told me that much about what you guys have been doing...what's this about Team Rocket and one of your friends being killed?" she asked, her eyes intent. Apparently, she didn't like the news anymore than they had back when they had first heard about them.

"Well…let's see." Todd started telling her the story of how Ash and Misty had been captured, and of how they had all gone to rescue them. How Duplica had been shot and killed during the assault, and how they had sworn to avenge her, hunting Team Rocket ever since. How Misty had disappeared and they had all thought her dead, but how she had later reappeared as Shadow, and how they had all been reunited in Olivine.

Suzie's facial expression changed as she told the story, from outrage to sadness, to pity as she heard of Gary being left alone. It became a deadly smile as she heard of their oath, and a dark frown as she heard of the new group that had raided the Oak lab, disguising themselves as Team Rocket. She looked at them in stricken horror as they told her of Misty's death, and her face was filled with sorrow as she heard of how Ash had reacted to that death. It changed to horror again as she heard of Shadow and what she had done, and outrage as the final act of the tragedy unfolded, the revelation that someone had taken control of Misty and had used her as a weapon.

"If I had the guy who did that with me right now…" she muttered under her breath. "Well, I don't know about that guy, but what I know is that I'm going to help you guys get back at Team Rocket." Her face was now deathly still. 

"Are you sure?…It's…dangerous…" Brock stated, and though his voice seemed hesitant again somehow it appeared to Todd as if the hesitation came more from not being very willing to oppose Suzie rather than his usual shyness around girl, as if what Suzie had told her recently had relieved him of that.

"Which is why I should help. I *am* a pokemon master, after all." She countered, and Brock grudgingly admitted that she would probably be the one less in danger of all of them.

With her help, their planning proceeded quickly, especially once she pointed out that Espeon was apparently very good at tracking someone's particular mental wavelength. All they would have to do would be to move around and asks her Espeon to track the wavelength of Felicity – provided they could track her down while on the ship so that Espeon could get accustomed to that particular wavelength. As soon as the psychic Pokémon located its target, finding the Rocket headquarters would be as simple as taking a stroll down the street.

It was only as they got off the ship, three days after their chance encounter with the three rockets that Brock, Todd and Suzie managed to locate the trio again, going down the ramp just ahead of them. Suzie called out her psychic pokemon as discretely as she could, hoping that the three of them wouldn't notice, and apparently they didn't, because none of them reacted. The psychic Eevee stared at Felicity for a long moment, then nodded and Suzie recalled her just as discretely They had her now. Of course, she would get away from them here, but they would catch back with her later.

As they walked off the ship and toward the local pokemon center hoping to get a place to rest at for the quickly coming night, they went back to talking about what they had each done during the time since they had been away. Brock told them that he had taken some time away from Ash and Misty, though he seemed very reluctant to tell about where he had been or what he had been doing at that time, only mentioning that it was something he preferred not to think about. He explained about his return to Pallet only to hear of the trouble Ash and Misty were in at that point, and about his decision to help the two of them – an easy decision.

The discussion on that topic then somehow turned to what Todd had been up to, and especially how he had captured his dragonite, which was a topic he was rather reluctant to discuss, because of some of the things that had happened, especially in the last few days of the mission he had been on.

"Well…it all started a few days weeks after I left you guys" he explained to Brock. "Professor Oak called me and asked me to help him on some research project of his" he continued. "He wanted to get a few pictures of Pokemon, and decided it was best to ask me for that...Anyway, he sent me to pokemon Island..." 

"THE Pokemon Island - you mean, that trainers-banned island with supposedly Pokemon of each and every species..." Suzie interrupted in an awe-struck voice.

"That island, yeah. Though as far as we could see, there's only something like 60 different species there, give or take a few." He replied. "Though admittedly, there are some pretty interesting pokemon there - Dragonite, I caught a brief glimpse of what I think almost seemed to be the legendary birds - Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, though seeing as they are supposed to live in the Falangir Islands, I don't see how that would be possible..."

"They definitely live in there. Ash and Misty told me about having a run-in with them in that vicinity last summer." Brock confirmed. "Back when there were all those weathers problems..." he added and both Todd and Suzie nodded.

"Well, anyway, maybe it wasn't them, or maybe they were there for whatever reason, but it looked like them." Todd continued. "Quite a few Lapras, Gyarados, that kind of thing..."

"Must have been interesting..." Suzie commented, while Brock looked at him suspiciously.

"Sounds like you're hiding something...there was another rare pokemon you aren't talking about?" He asked shrewdly.

Todd looked at his friend in silence for a moment. He would have liked very little more than to tell him, but there was no way he could do that, seeing as he had been told repeatedly by the team or researchers which had hired him not to talk about it to anyone.

"I...can't tell you...I'm sorry but professor Oak and his colleagues told me not to talk about it...You can ask HIM if you want..." He replied finally, trying very hard to keep himself from blurting out the secret. "I really can't talk about it..."

"Oh, I guess it's all right." Brock shrugged. "It's not like I need to know that stuff."

They continued walking down the old stone-paved streets of the great port city toward the pokemon center, finally reaching it just in time to take the last three room available. Surprisingly, Brock did not behave stupidly in front of the nurse, unlike what he usually did. Glancing at Suzie, Todd could make a few guesses as to what was keeping him from doing so, but they were only guessed, and quite possibly unfounded.

They left the next morning, heading north-west toward Celadon where Brock was planning to visit Erica to update her personally about the recent events and see if she had any clues to give them. 

_________________________________________

They had spent three weeks fruitlessly walking on the road, first the five days from Vermilion to Celadon, where Erica had been unable to help them, then the three more days from there to reach Saffron, where Sabrina had been equally unable to help. Then, it had been two more days to Cerulean where Misty's sister had proved just as clueless about the situation as any of them.

It had then taken them three more days to reach Pewter, where Brock had insisted that they should stay for an additional day so that he could spend some time with his family, then three more to get down to Viridian. Now, after yet another two long days of walking, they were finally about to reach Pallet, where they were planning to start investigating again, after checking with Professor Oak if he had received any information from Ash's group.

Suddenly, as they were still a few hours away from Pallet, Espeon, who had been walking besides Suzie for most of the way, stopped, and turned her head sharply toward the left, as if she has spotted a familiar mental signature. They immediately headed through the threes in that direction, finding a rickety old cabin after a short while of wandering. 

"That's not their headquarters." Todd commented, though she only half-listened.

"Doesn't look that way at least." Brock nodded, then picked up one of his pokeball. "Zubat! I choose you!" he whispered, sending out the tiny bat-like pokemon. She flew off to the window of the old cabin and looked in, then flew back toward them after a moment.

"Where there any rockets in there?" Brock asked it, getting a nod.

"Do you think it was their headquarters?" Todd added, this time getting the tiny creature to shake her head. 

"I wonder what it is..." Suzie muttered, looking at the building and wondering what was going on there.

"Let me check." Todd whispered back before carefully creeping closer to the cabin, to the point where he would supposedly be able to hear what they were saying. He listened for a while, then came back as silently as he had gone.

"Looks like either they knew we were going to listen in on them today - which I doubt - or else that Felicity was telling us the truth the other day...it's a bunch of Rocket and they talk about attacking their headquarters. Which they said were about a day's walk from here." He whispered to them as he crept back. 

"The question is, what do we do now?" Brock asked.

"I say we go back to Pallet first to see if the others found anything and tell them about what we found, then keep an eye on these guys." Suzie said after a few seconds of quick thinking. The other two nodded, and they slowly headed out of the forest ahead.

Chapter 27 : Storms Warning

"Felicity, Ralph, Jessie, James. I'm glad all of you managed to come..." Damian started, looking at the four Rocket agents. Felicity and Ralph had been two of his fathers most trusted lieutenant, and he had never had any doubts that they would follow. Jessie and James, Ralph had mentioned as being disgusted with the new path Team Rocket was taking. Though with their track record, Damian was not inclined to trust them very much, when Elayne pointed out that fighting against Team Rocket they had a very good success rate, he had been forced to give in. 

"I've already told all of you about the situation, so now we need to plan out what we are going to do." He added.

"Well...first off, we all agree that we have to get Giovanni out of there." Felicity pointed out.

"Definitely. Logically, they'll be keeping him out of sight, and that would be the old dungeon. Almost no one uses that anymore." Elayne added, looking at their various maps of their headquarters.

"Yeah. We all stopped when Giovanni killed that bastard father of his." Ralph confirmed. Of them all, he was the oldest rocket member, being thirty, a rocket member for fifteen years. Felicity, at twenty five, had been with the team for ten years, while Damian, Elayne, Jessie and James were all recent members.

"Questions are, how do we do that, and what else do we do?" Elayne pointed out.

"We take the guys who did that out, and we..."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Damian interrupted Ralph in a bitter tone.

"Why don't we just let the police deal with the whole thing?" Jessie asked suddenly, and as Damian turned toward her to point out that this idea was idiotic, Elayne interrupted him.

"You know, that idea has merit..." she said thoughtfully. "We get in, find the records, delete the names we want to keep under wrap, and then let the records "accidentally falls in the hands of some government guy." 

"You know Damian...she got it right...alone, we can't do much to Team Rocket, but if we do that trick, we'll be able to get rid of all the members who joined just for money and keep the members who know what Team Rocket really is about." Ralph admitted. "And those here, of course."

"That plan got real possibilities...most of those Rockets we would be getting rid off are the people Giovanni had been planning to send on those kamikaze raids anyway." Felicity nodded.

"All right. So we get the records, get my father out of here, and if possible get those bastard who replaced him out too." Damian agreed with them finally. "Next is, how do we do each of that?" he asked.

"Well, I say we split in 3 groups. One to get Giovanni out, one to get the records, one to get the two bastards." Ralph slowly replied.

"The groups are obvious, but who go on what job?" Elayne asked him curiously.

"Jessie and James sneak in to get Giovanni out. They're good at sneaking." He pointed out first. "Then I think you and Damian should take care of the records, while Felicity and I take the two idiots out of the way." Ralph explained quickcly, and Damian nodded. Now that they had a plan, it would be easy to strike. "Ok, so, when do we strike?" he asked, hoping they could do so as soon as possible.

"I think we should all get as ready as we can before we strike...it's not going to be an easy job." Felicity pointed out. "We'll want to be as well-rested as we can..." she added ."And most of us only just got here."

"Good point." Elayne admitted. "Three days from now?" she asked them, and slowly got all of them to approve. 

"Well, three days it is then." Damian grudgingly gave in, though he wanted to get his father out as fast as he could.

_________________________________

Brock lead them as they walked in the quiet Pallet town, Suzie half a step behind, and Todd further back, looking to make sure that no one was after them. After all, there was always the possibility that someone knew they had been listening in on the strange gathering of Rocket agents. The sun was already low in the sky as they reached the small town.

"Brock!" The yell came from the street, and he looked ahead to see Ash, Misty and Gary running toward him.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" he asked them in surprise. "Weren't you in Olivine?"

"Well, we ran in Jessie and James, and..." Misty started then stopped suddenly, staring beyond Brock. "Who...?" she said, her face surprised at the appearance of a companion she didn't recognize.

"It's Suzie, remember her?" Brock gently reminded her.

"You mean, the one from Celadon?" she looked at him curiously.

"You know, it's not very polite talking like that about me when I'm right in front of you..." Suzie commented, and Brock winced, then took a deep breath as she let out a clear laugh.

"And what are you doing here?" Ash asked, his face filled with astonishment.

"Well, I met with Brock again on that ship, talked about what had happened, and I decided to help him. I just happened to think I might be able to help..." she whispered, and Brock, looking at her, realized that she was making sure to keep her pokemon master ring out of sight.

Ash, Misty and Gary nodded. "What are you doing here, anyway?" Brock repeated his earlier question, now that they were done with the problem of Suzie being around.

"Well, we ran in Jessie and James, and they told us the headquarters were in this vicinity, so we took the first ship, and here we are." Misty explained, holding Ash's hand as she did so. Brock nodded, looking at the two of them. 

"Have you found anything since you arrived?" he asked them, hoping that they'd be able to improve the previous plan with what they knew.

"Nope. Ash and I are using our Pidgeots to fly around and try to spot the place, but no luck so far." Gary replied. "They must have it well-hidden, so..." he left it hanging.

"It's probably underground or some such." Todd commented. 

"Yeah, that would make sense." Richie added, joining them. "What do we do now?" He asked them.

"Well, we overheard a few Rockets talking about rebelling...seems like there was some kind of change with the Rockets, and some members apparently don't like that and are about to rebel. We know were those members are, so we could follow them when they go around to attacking the Headquarters..." Brock explained the plan that they had came up with already.

"Sounds like the best plan we have so far." Gary nodded.

"Sounds like the ONLY plan we have so far." Misty corrected.

"Hey!" the young man protested.

"Well, do you call flying around aimlessly on pidgeot a "plan" Gary? I sure don't..." she grinned, and Gary winced.

"So, we keep an eye on them, and look around for the headquarters on our own in the meantime?" Richie asked, getting everyone to nod. 

"We called in the others...Erica and my sisters won't be able to come, but Sabrina's going to arrive soon..." Misty explained.

"Correction : I'm here already." Sabrina interrupted as she arrived, and the last shimmers in the air around her easily told them that she had just teleported in.

"That's good." Gary said, looking at her, his face serious.

"Yeah." Ash nodded, though his face wasn't as serious.

"Anyway, Danea told us she had something to take care of, but that she'd help us for the raid. She should be around soon...." Misty informed them.

"Danea Ketchum?" Sabrina asked in surprise. "It's been a long time since I last saw her. I wonder if she improved..." she mused. 

Before anyone could answer, Ash's mother appeared. "Ash, supper is ready now." She told him ."I've made enough for all your friends, too." She added with a smile, gesturing with her hand to invite them all.

__________________________

It was as Ash pushed the plate that had held the excellent Sushi that his mother had prepared that the doorbell rang. He made as if to move, but his mother rose first, moving toward the door.

"Stay with your friend dear. I'll see who it is." She told him.

Ash shrugged and sat back down, though there wasn't much to say at that point, as they had already said pretty much everything they wanted to. He simply moved his chair closer to Misty, and, putting an arm around her shoulders, pulled her close to him. She let her head rest on his shoulders, sighing contentedly. Sabrina, who happened to be sitting in front of him, had a thing smile. Brock was apparently lost in thought, or perhaps lost in looking at Suzie. Gary and Richie were talking about something, though Ash had never paid attention to their conversation, and thus had no idea now from what few pieces he could gather what it was all about.

"You!" The voice coming from the door was undeniably his mother's. It sounded extremely surprised, perhaps a bit pleased as well. 

"Hello Deliah." The other voice was definitely Danea's. "It's been a while." She smiled. "I told your son I'd drop by to give him a hand at hitting Team Rocket." 

"Ash? Does he..." the meaning of the uncompleted sentence was quite clear.

"He knows I'm his aunt." She replied.

"I thought you wanted to keep that under wrap?" his mother pointed out.

"Yeah, but it came out by accident." She explained. "I'll explain some other time..."

"All right." His mother apparently had no objections to that. "Why don't you come in?" she then asked, and Ash smiled. Now they'd all be there, ready to strike whenever it was time.

The two of them walked in the room. "How's your daughter?" Ash's mother asked her sister in law. "I hope she's less of a troublesome girl than she used to be."

Danea made a sour face.

"If anything, she's worst. You'll see soon enough, she should be arriving in a few minutes, she decided to trail behind for whatever reason, and I really wasn't up to fighting over that stuff." She shook her head, and there was a tired look in her eyes.

"Is she still..." Deliah begun, but Danea interrupted her.

"Yeah, she is...though considering the business with her father, I guess she does have some reason - less than I do..."

"Far less." Deliah interrupted.

"But still, she does have some valid reasons to think that way. Though she do carry it to extreme sometime." Ash listened intently to what they were saying. While it was obvious they were referring to Danea's daughter - his cousin - he had no idea what the reasons where, or what they were reasons for.

Someone knocked on the door, and Danea and Deliah both rose at once to go open the door. A few seconds later, they were back in the main room, followed by another white-haired woman, hardly more than a girl, at least as far as Ash could tell by the way she looked. Yet, considering what Danea had told them about her family looking younger than they were, Ash could only guess that while she looked maybe ten or twelve, she was about fourteen, just like him.

What was surprising and stunning about her was not so much her young appearance, or her silver-white hair, than it was the clothe she wore, however. Dark boots of a slightly shiny black material covered her legs nearly up to the knees, covering the long suit of black leather pants that covered her legs. She wore a tight, very tight black shirt that looked almost painful being so tight. A long dark black coat covered her shoulders and went down under her knees. A leather collar was around her neck, with small metallic spikes protruding from it, and wristbands of similar materials encircled each of her wrists. Her long hair went down to mid-back, and as she looked at them, there was a dark look in her eyes, that somewhat softened as she looked at Sabrina, Suzie and Misty.,

"Ash, that's your cousin, Tanya…" Danea sighed. "I said it before Deliah, I'll say it again. You got the easy one out of the two."

"I know." His mother smiled.

"What exactly did you mean by that mum?" Tanya asked, an hard edge in her voice. Danea winced, and elected not to answer.

___________________________

"You know, I really hate those physical training sessions." May told her roommate as they entered their room again after three sweating hours of running across the base, increasing their aim with a gun, and basically learning to be perfect soldiers.

"Yeah, so do I." Her companion nodded. "What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"I'll just hit the simulators. I want to take a shot at that scenario twenty we've been hearing about." She explained, referring to the computer battle simulators in which they took command of forces thrown against each other – usually, Lotus forces attacking pokemon league bases. Scenario twenty, the assault on Saffron, was usually considered as the hardest one, and from what she had heard the ones who had managed to beat it could be counted on the fingers of a hand. 

However, she had been studying the maps of Saffron for the last few week in preparation for that test through the simulator, and she had an idea of how to do it. As far as she knew, beating the assault on Saffron on the simulator was the fastest track out of the training session, as those who actually defeated it were assigned automatically to the command section to train in strategy and tactics instead of shooting and running.

The simulation center of the base was rather empty as she entered, and she immediately sat down in one of the chair, powering up the computer. The screen in front of her lighted up, and she typed in her access code, which immediately sent her to the level 20 simulation. The "Deploy your troops for the attack" screen appeared, and she started deploying the forces she had managed to keep after the previous battles for a fight.

As soon as the action started, her first action was to send her troops to surround the city itself. The location in the mountains meant that this part of the mission had to be executed by airborne troops carried by helicopters, as most other units of the army would have a hard time crossing the mountains that surrounded Saffron on all sides but one.

On a nagging suspicion that the computer would try to reinforce Saffron by the same way she was moving her own units in place, her first maneuver was to send in her air force to raid the enemy airbases. That part of the mission was effective, probably because the computer, used to the mad rush tactic most student used, would not anticipate surgical precise attack against the airport early in the game. 

Once that was done, she simply used a traditional starvation tactic, blocking all ways in and out of the city until the computer ran out of ressources. At that point, all it took was a few helicopters dropping a few troopers in carefully selected locations, and on the tactical maps, the key buildings of saffron turned from the purple marking them as League bases to the red of Lotus bases. May smiled – until a message informing her that her forces were under attack appeared.

Her first question as she received the message was "how did they get there?" before realizing that they had probably been dropped by helicopters right in the street, or that they might be another form of airborne unit. A quick analysis of the situation showed her that she was at quite a disadvantage inside the city, but that she still had the upper hand. Probably, her fighters had managed to shoot down a sizeable chunks of the transports.

The computer obviously, from the way it deployed its troop, expected her to try to pull out of the city, which was what she wouldn't attempt. Most people she had hear off had told her that was what they had done in that situation, so there had to be another way to go around that. A cursory glance revealed that the enemy forces were weaker in the northern part of the town, and, using her troops positioned in each of the mountain pass, it was a piece of cake to launch an assault against the second wave of enemies.

"Victory by default." She whispered as her forces used a standard strategy of hammer and anvil – an attack from behind to disorganize the enemy, and a force on the other side to prevent them from hiding and fleeing.

A second later, the command screen was replaced by the victory screen, and the computer was displaying a score analyzing her job.

"Congratulation May." A voice said from behind her, the voice of that young officer who had been in charge of pulling her out of her house and getting her to the headquarters.

"Thanks Eric." She replied, turning toward one of the only two members of the Lotus that she considered as friends.

"Hey, you did even better than I did!" He smiled. "So you're part of our own little Elite now, aren't you?"

"I guess so." She grinned. "How many of us are there again?"

"Four, I think. Me, the grand master, that guy named Ethan Starkhad – he's a veteran, and has spent the last two years or so on a mission or some kind – and you." Eric smiled. "And out of them all, you got the highest score, except maybe the grand master. I guess you'll get a job way up…"

"Really?" May asked in surprise.

"Well, what else would you expect? I know for a fact that they're planning to make Starkhad a general, and you got a better score than he did…plus, that trick with the Rockets outfit to get you out of your home was quite brilliant…I can't say I KNOW what's going to happen, but I'm sure you'll be given a great job."

"Thanks." She blushed slightly, hoping he didn't notice.

"In the meantime, I was going to pay a visit to the top, care to come along?" he asked her, his eyes shining. The top was the top of the mountain where the base was built, and it had been arranged as a quiet place where soldiers who wanted to get some rest after their training sessions could go. The weather was definitely a bit colder than down below, though not that much – the mountain was not that high.

"Why not? I definitely feel like getting a bit of fresh air." She answered, smiling.

Chapter 28 : The Calm Before the Storm

The beach of Pallet Town was known throughout the world as one of the most romantic spots in the world. It was a chance, Ash reflected as he walked slowly along it, his arm resting on Misty's shoulders while her own arm was wrapped around his waist. Romantic, it definitely was, and beautiful as well, but as far as Ash was concerned it was nowhere near as beautiful as Misty. She had let her long orange-red hair loose, and they were floating down on her shoulders, a rippling cascade of fiery gold in the light of sunset.

Her aqua eyes glittered like two starts in the middle of the night, two points of light that guided his entire life. He slowly stopped walking, and pulled her close to him, his arms wrapped around her shoulders now as he held her tightly. Their eyes met, and so did their lips, and for a moment Ash forgot everything about Team Rocket and the whole day they had spent on a fruitless search as he became lost in a world of pure bliss and feelings.

After a while they stopped and just stood there, holding each other, just being close. There was no one else in the world he would have wanted to be with more than to be with her, and he was. The feeling of being the luckiest man in the world swept over him. As it was, he could go and forget all about being a pokemon master, he didn't care if he was a pokemon master or an hopeless trainer, a looser as Gary had so often called him. All that mattered was the fiery-haired girl in his arms, the one girl that meant everything to him.

"I love you." He whispered softly in her ear.

"I love you too." She answered.

It was, all in all, a perfect evening. The weather was not too warm, yet not too cold either, the weather of early autumn. A breeze chased away the dampness that had been in the air for all the day, and the sky, which had been overcast for most of the day, was now perfectly clear, just in time for the setting sun to bath the two of them in its glorious golden light.

"There's just no way I could say how much I love you." Misty added, pushing his league cap out of the way and running her hand through his hair. "It's just...I never imagined a feeling that strong could exist." She told him softly, toying with his hair, wrapping them around one of her finger. Ash gently caressed her own hair, smiling at her.

"You don't need to tell me...I know what it's like." He smiled ."I feel just the same about you." He said softly.

__________________________________

"What's wrong Damian?" Elayne asked, noticing the young man sitting on the bed, looking very out of it.

"I'm worried, what else?" he replied bitterly. "I don't like all the waiting...they could do anything to my father...and now that my sister's dead..."

"You feel alone, right?" 

"Yeah..." he replied sadly.

She put an arm on his shoulder and sat down beside him, holding him tightly. It was all too easy to understand how he felt about being alone - she was, after all, an orphan, and had spent the last six years of her life being alone, ever since her parents had died in a car crash that had left her a deep scar on the chest, and a shattered self-confidence. She had managed to rebuild the self-confidence after all these years, and the scar was still there, a painful reminder of what she had lost on that one night.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they didn't kill him." She told him soothingly. 

"Yeah, but what if they did?" he asked.

"Please leave the what if out of this...if you keep telling yourself that they did, it won't do any good and will make things worst for you." She told him dryly.

And of course, there was nothing to say about his sister - his twin sister - being dead. That had been an official newspapers report, and unless the reporters had royally screwed up, it was true. Yet there seemed something about it that didn't work out, something that someone had told her recently about...

Yet, as much as she tried to remember, she couldn't seem to summon any memory of the particular event that kept nagging at the back of her mind. She settled for comforting him instead of trying to find out what it was she was forgetting.

She simply tightened his hold on her shoulders, holding him as close to her as she could. The world had harmed him too much, and she would make sure it didn't harm him again.

"And no matter what, I'll be with you." She told him softly, and his tense body relaxed somewhat. "You'll always have me." She added, the words barely beginning to express how strongly she felt about him. There was just no way she would ever leave him.

He moved closer to her, and as she held him tightly, she was not too surprised to see a few crystalline tears falling from his eyes.

__________________________

The three men who approached him where thugs, well trained thugs perhaps but thugs nonetheless and as he watched them coming closer, he could easily guess that they had been sent by whoever was in control of Team Rocket to kill him. 

He had, of course, a variety of way available to finish them off, going from using the standard gun he was forced to carry with him as part of being the Kanto president, or sending out his pokemon to do the job...

Or else, call upon the training he had received from Koga, and teach those thugs a thing or two about just how limited guns were. _[i]Guns are impressive, all that sounds, and the speeds of their bullets. But for a true Kai, focusing his mind on the fight, guns are no more than a distraction, a way to keep them sharp, and certainly not a threat.[/i] _The old saying Koga had quoted so often came back to his mind as he drew his sword, a blade made on the far-away island of Hosho of some metal so hard that not even a bullet could break it - so far, only a laser had been able to do anything to the stuff.

Focusing his spirit on the blade, he fell back in the old defensive posture, slightly crouched, the blade held upward with his hands in front of his waist. The thugs laughed as they drew their guns. They had obviously never seen a Kai in action, and now it was much too late for them to learn about it. The first bullet whistled through the air, but in the instant between the firing of the gun and the moment at which the bullet would have struck him, Lance slightly altered the position of the sword.

The bullet fell to the ground, neatly sliced in half, having lost all of its speed upon striking the blade. More bullets whistled through the air, and all of them fell on the ground, neatly sliced in two, the two halves shining and showing no signs that they had been broken.

"Shit!" One of the thugs screamed. "We aren't going to do a thing here!" he started running away, but before he could go very far, Lance had sent out his Gyarados to capture him. It was an easy task for the great water dragon, and the man quickly found himself unable to flee - at which point, he aimed the gun at his head, and fired. The other two men decided to make it a fight for the end, firing all their bullets at him - and having none of them strike the target, all meeting the solid steel of a blade.

With a sigh, Lance charged the two survivors. One of them he quickly cut down, but before he could strike down the second, the man shot himself. Lance shook his head to clear away the utter concentration of the battle that it had taken to achieve the results he had achieved. As he did so, he revised his assessment of the three attackers. They were not simple though thugs, the simple fact that they had shot themselves rather than being captured proved that. That had been the third attempt on his life since his meeting with the false Giovanni, and this time it had happened while he was away from Indigo to meditate. Both earlier attacks had been by snipers and both had failed lamentably.

________________________

Suddenly, as Ash was about to kiss Misty again, he heard a strange sound coming from the forest. He threw himself to the ground, dragging Misty down with him, just in time for a stream of flame from a flamethrower attack to shoot right over their head.

He rose back up, and raced toward the source of the flamethrower. A spark of light in the forest had been his only warning of what was about to happen, and it had barely been enough to give him the time to get him and Misty both out of the way. He put his hand on Charizard's pokeball, ready to call out the big dragon if he needed to do so.

A strange, sad sad scene awaited him as he entered the forest, and stared at the group of pokemon all around. There was a huge pokemon, slightly like a dog in shape, except that it had long white horn on the top of its head. It was completely black, and had a skull-like symbol on the neck. A Houndoom, a pokemon that he would never have expected to find in the wild. Facing it were three smaller lizard-like water blue pokemon, Totodiles, constantly shooting streams of water at the beast. 

The Houndoom looked weak, as if it had been fighting for a long time already, a theory which was backed up by the presence of two more totodile, fainted, on the ground. The jet of water struck the pokemon again, and Ash wondered why it wouldn't flee...

And then he saw the egg, already wobbling, near to cracking open. It wasn't a small bird egg, and Ash knew with a dreadful certitude that the egg belonged to the Houndoom - obviously a female - and that she was protecting it from the totodile. He silently cursed the fact that he didn't have Pikachu with him, as his electric pokemon would have done short work of the three totodile. Charizard, with his weakness to water, was not a really good choice for such a fight. He instead picked up his other pokeball, releasing Pidgeot, hoping he could save the great beast before he was too late, knowing he had very little chances of doing so.

"Pidgeot! Try to blow those totodiles away!" he ordered, and the great bird flapped her wings rapidly, soon pushing one of the totodile far out of the way. However, the two other were relentlessly attacking the Houndoom, and the beast would obviously not hold on much longer. Ash silently prayed that Pidgeot would hurry up, defeat the remaining Totodile before they could harm the Houndoom.

She released a last stream of flame at one of the remaining totodile, burning him and causing him to jump out of the way with a startled cry, but the last one released a last blast of water before being blown away by Pidgeot's whirlwind, and the great dog hound fell to the ground, defeated. With her last strength, she pushed the already cracking egg toward Ash, who immediately understood what she wanted him to do. As the fire in her eyes died, he sadly picked up the egg, holding it securely in his arms.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of your baby." He whispered, hoping that the soul of the Houndoom would hear him. 

With a slight sound, the egg cracked open, revealing the head of a baby Houndour, who looked at Ash with big eyes. The young man helped the baby free himself of the egg, then gently held him in his arms as he carried it out of the wood before the totodile got a chance to return. The eyes of the little pokemon seemed to be filled with wonder at the world, and whenever he looked at him, with a special kind of trust. Remembering what his pokedex had had to say about Togepi, Ash could only assume that while it did not go as far with other species as it went with Togepi, some of them still assumed that the first thing they saw was their mother, or at least trusted that first living being that they would see. 

"Don't worry Houndour. I'll take care of you." He whispered to the baby pokemon, gently rubbing his head, knowing just how important the role he had taken would be for the little being. It was somehow both scary and exhilarating, having that much responsibility. Houndour tentatively licked his hand, and Ash smiled. He walked back to the beach and to Misty, who was still there, waiting for him to come back.

Chapter 29 : When Battle Begins

The next morning dawned bright and promising as Ash rose up, smiling as he saw his pokemon, which he had let out for the night, rising also. Charizard had slept outside, and so had Pidgeot, which left Pikachu and Houndour with him. The yellow-furred electric mouse who had been with him since the very first day of his travel was happily talking with the baby, but as soon as Houndour saw that Ash was up, he turned toward him and threw himself in his lap, licking his face.

Smiling, Ash took the puppy in his arms and carried him, holding him closely. Somehow, he felt as though he had a debt toward the little pokemon because he hadn't been able to save his mother. Carrying the puppy in his arm still, he walked toward the window of his room, and pulled the curtains out of the way. The sun was shining, illuminating the entire field. Charizard and Pidgeot were already up and mock-fighting each other, trading back and forth tiny shot of embers and weak gusts of wind that barely even started to affect Charizard. Looking back at the clear sky, he smiled as he admitted that it would be a perfect day for flying.

He smiled and walked downstairs, Houndour still in his arms. Most of the others already were there, and as he joined them he looked curiously at his cousin, who answered by simply glaring at him. Slightly hurt by the way she behaved around him, he decided not to try to understand the strange animosity. It was, he guessed, one of those things better left unknown.

"Misty, I think I'll be making some flying around with Pidgeot " He told her as they ate. "Think you can take care of Houndour?" he asked her, getting a delighted smile as his answer.

"Of course!" she apparently liked the little creature more than he would have suspected. It was probably, he reflected, one of those things about girls that he would never understand. He had heard that there were lots of things about girls that no man had ever understood.

The two of them walked outside the house together, Misty holding the small Houndour in her arms. Ash felt a sharp pang of guilt as he watched the creature sad eyes on him, and almost felt like backing down and staying on the ground with the poor puppy, but decided not to. He had promised to take care of Houndour, true...but he had also promised to hunt down and destroy Team Rocket. Misty could take care of Houndour for him for a moment while he tried again to fulfill his other oath.

"Pidgeot!" He called, and the great bird flapped her wings, flying at an astounding speed toward him, before landing in front of him. He climbed on her back, and patted Houndour's head one last time before letting his great pokemon take flight, with him on the back. The feeling of the wind rushing past him as they rose toward the cerulean sky was without compare. It was the feeling of absolute freedom, the feeling of being unstoppable. But he was not going around flying just for the fun of it, even though it was fun, he was in the sky for a specific reason. A bit further behind him, he noticed that Gary's Pidgeot - one of his few pokemon that had not been with him, yet not with his grandfather at the laboratory either - was taking to the sky, his friend on his back.

With a few flaps of their wings, the two pidgeot were within talking distance of each other, allowing Gary and Ash to plan out their searching for the day. With what they had covered the day before, only the area south of the forest shack remained to be checked out. The fact that they knew the target was half-a-day walk from the shack made it easier to locate it, as well, as that meant it was at a certain distance of it, thus they did not have to search too wide a strip of land.

They flew toward the area that was left to check out, the strong wind rushing past them as the two birds raced through the air, their great wings carrying them effortlessly. The trees down behind them looked so tiny that they might have been pieces of one of those kids construction game he had played when he was younger. He could barely distinguish any traces of human activity in the area, as high as they were, because humans looked like ants, too tiny to even be noticed. 

An exhilarating feeling, to be sure, but unfortunately, not exactly the best way to locate a headquarter. He signaled to Gary that he was going to move closer to the ground, and Gary nodded, signaling that he was about to do the same anyway. Suddenly, as they flew lower, there was a loud detonation and Pidgeot shouted shrilly as he jerked out of the way of an invisible something. Looking down on the ground, Ash saw a pair of men in black clothes standing by the door of a small building, one of them holding a gun in his hand, and realized what it was that Pidgeot had dodged in the nick of time.

Before the man with the gun got a second chance at shooting, a majestic thunderbolt fell from the sky straight on him, and the man dropped to the ground, unconscious or perhaps even dead. Ash looked up in surprise to see that the previously clear sky had suddenly become covered with dark black clouds, and as he turned back to looking at what seemed likely to be the headquarters, he felt rain splattering over his head.

"Ash! We should head back...with that thunderstorm falling around us..." Gary voice came from behind him, and he quickly nodded.

"That's the headquarters anyway!" he shouted back. "And I don't feel like staying out in a storm anymore than you!"

As they flew away, neither of them noticed the strange eyes watching them at the heart of the thunderstorm, black and white eyes of lightning and crackling electric energy, eyes carried on great wings.

_________________________________

For a brief moment, Damian wondered where the strange storm had come from as the others gathered around him for their attack. Ralph was there, his short dark hair outlining his face, his dark brown eyes shining with fierce fury. Felicity as well, looking deadlier than she ever had, ready to kill. Jessie and James were there too, no longer looking like little kids lost in a world of adults, but this time looking like adults ready to fight for what they believed in. They had done away with their usual white Rocket uniforms, replacing them with the black suites of high-ranking rocket members, and looked much more professional than they had before. Elayne, of course, was there, holding her own pokeballs ready for battling, a determined look on her young face. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, her eyes filled with love. 

"Is everyone ready?" He asked them, hoping that they would come out of there with no losses, especially without loosing Elayne. That was one thing he would not be able to take, whatever else happened. As long as he had Elayne, he was safe, but without her...

Without her, there was nothing to the world, nothing worth living for.

Ralph nodded first, without hesitation, followed a split second later by Felicity and Elayne. Jessie and James, on the other hand, did hesitate, but finally nodded as well, firmly. With a weary sigh, Damian opened the door of the little forest house and led them outside, pokeballs ready. It was early in the day, and they would be close to their target in the afternoon, even if they rested frequently underway to avoid wasting energy. If there was one thing no one of them wanted, it was to attack while tired, which would be disastrous.

They walked toward the headquarters, not paying any attention to the forest around them, a forest they had all visited a hundred time already. They knew the track they were on, and they knew that they would not have much difficulties approaching the headquarters, because no one would have difficulties with a group of Rocket coming in the Team Rocket headquarters. The only danger would be once there, once they had started the fighting, that one of them would be lost in the battle.

It was a danger Damian tried to think of as little as he could.

_________________________

The storm had broken off as suddenly, as unexpectedly as it had started, and there was no way for them to explain what had just happened. As soon as the clouds had vanished, Gary and Ash had jumped back on their pidgeot, flying toward Pallet, and soon they were back there.

"Did you see that storm?" Brock asked them as soon as they arrived. "It lasted only for a few minutes..."

"Yeah, we were in the middle of it." Gary replied shortly. "Strange thing about it is, the first bolt hit the rocket shooting at Ash instead of any of the trees around." He added.

"Rocket shooting at Ash?" Misty stared at them in horror.

"Don't worry...Pidgeot managed to dodge the first shot, and that thunderbolt took him out before he got more shots in." Ash replied as Misty threw her arms around him, holding him fiercely.

"You...you..." she tried to start "You know what would have happened...if you had gotten yourself killed...right?" the question was soft, too low for any but him to hear.

"Yeah...But I'm here Misty. I didn't get myself killed...and we're together." He added, holding her close to him. The two of them turned slowly toward the others, who were talking animatedly about their recent find of the Rocket Headquarters.

"Are you sure it's the right place?" Richie was asking.

"Well, the guys who shot at Ash were Rockets. And they must have thought they were protecting something important, so I'd say we're quite sure." Gary replied.

"Makes sense. They wouldn't shoot people for no reason." 

"Not sure about that. They're guys." Tanya replied sarcastically to her mother's comment, earning herself dark glare from Brock and Gary while Ash looked at her, confused.

"Just what is it with you and guys?" Richie asked her, fire in his eyes.

"You're idiot, violent, and you don't care about how others are affected by what you do. I think that's about enough reasons to hate guys." She replied darkly, steel in her voice.

"Wait a minute! Did you just say *I* was like that?" Ash protested, feeling anger rising within him for each of her comments. "I don't care? I'm violent?" he asked, trying to keep his emotions under control.

"Stop it." Danea said ."Both of you. Stop provoking them Tanya, and you Ash, stop reacting so strongly. Instead of fighting, we should be heading toward that base, if we want to hit it soon." She told them in a hard tone of voice.

"Question is, how do we get there quickly? It's a day walk from that shack and the shack is half a day walk from here.

"Simple enough. Danea, Tanya and I can teleport there, and wait for you while resting." Sabrina stated. "Meanwhile, you can use whatever flying pokemon you have to get there, send the pokemon back here with perhaps one of you to guide them, then have them carry the other backs" she explained. "You got two charizard, a dragonite and two pidgeot after all." She pointed out

"That's true." Ash nodded. "Which means we'll have to go back for two of us." He calculated.

"Actually, there's not going to be a need for the last two to fly in with our pokemon here, I think." Gary told him. "My gramp didn't keep all his pokemon in for the night all the time, so he had a few out the night the lab was raided. Birds, mostly." He said, smiling. 

As it turned out, professor Oak indeed did have some bird pokemon left for them to borrow, and borrow they did. With the pidgeot and fearow they had borrowed, it was an easy thing to fly within a few minutes walking of the rocket base. 

Ash grinned darkly. The stage was set for them to fulfill their oaths. And for Team Rocket to die in the process.

__________________________

There were five guards outside the Rocket headquarters, and as they approached them, Danea, Sabrina and Tanya tensed themselves. It would definitely be up to the three of them to take out the first line of defense of the opposition. They all concentrated, their eyes glowing, as Ash watched them, hoping that they would succeed.

Interestingly, they seemed to use different methods to fight. While Danea struck out with a beam of light that caused one of the guard to collapse and Tanya did the same to another, Sabrina looked at the guard and simply whispered. The guards she had aimed at stood still, apparently oblivious to anything around them. She smirked, and Ash wondered what it was that she had done.

"What was that?" he asked her.

"the other half of the powers of a psychic. Danea specialize in Control - directly making things happen with her psychic energy. I prefer alteration - making the mind of someone believe whatever I want that mind to believe." She explained, though Ash did not really understand what she was talking about. "Basically, she made them fall asleep. I made their brain think they are asleep, which mean no one else will notice that they are asleep." She smiled. 

"Ah, well, if you say so..." he answered.

Entering the base proved to be a simple enough matter once they had taken out the guards, as there were no locks or any highly advanced defense system around the door - not even a security camera, or a movement detector.

They went in, walking as silently as they could in the great hallway that was the only place they could go after entering the base by the door they had taken, trying to find their way to a place where they could find a complete list of Team Rocket members and the missions they had been on, so as to get them arrested and thrown in jail.

Soon, they came upon a corner, and stopped there, unsure as to where they should be going. There was no sign indicating which way led where, and without anyone who knew the place to guide them, Ash felt like they were in deep trouble. 

"We really should have thought about that." He mentioned to the others.

"No d'uh." Misty answered sarcastically, though Ash could feel somehow that she was more angry with herself for not finding out than with him for pointing it out.

"What now?" Danea interrupted.

"Well, we split. Three possible ways, means we split in three teams." Sabrina said matter-of-factly. Tanya seemed about to make a retort, but a glare from Danea apparently silenced her.

"All right. Danea, Misty, Gary, you come with me. We'll take the road up front." Ash told them, his glare challenging them to try to go against what he was saying. "Tanya, Suzie, Brock, you take the left road..."

"I'm not about to take orders from you!" Tanya protested vehemently.

"Tanya, do as he said!" Danea told her, again glaring. The two psychics looked at each other for a long moment, then Tanya finally backed down. 

"Sabrina, Todd, Richie, you take the right." He finished now that Tanya was no longer interrupting him. Her eyes still seemed like he would be dead if they could kill, but at least now she was silent.

They all went their separate way, Danea spearheading his group, as Ash put an hand on the pokeball at his belt that held Charizard while Pikachu sat on his shoulders as always, ready for action. Misty had her hand on Seadra's pokeball, also ready to fight, while Gary seemed to be just waiting for the first sign of trouble to send out Arcanine.

Chapter 30 : Revelations

They raced through the hallways, looking at each room they could find, but finding only empty rooms with nothing interesting in them. The feeling that time was limited was very present, they knew that the Rockets would soon realize about them being there and not being friends. Danea had managed to put to sleep the only two rocket minions they had met so far, but the relative peace they had run in would not last that long...

"Stop! You need an authorization from the boss to go down further!" A voice was saying ahead, from just past a corner. "And no, you being the boss's son isn't enough." The voice continued. They rounded the corner just in time to see a flareon and jolteon appearing in the middle of it, flanked a second later by a Tangela.

"Jolteon! Thunderbolt! Flareon! Flamethrower!" A young man about his age, maybe a year older or so ordered the two pokemon.

"Tangela, stun spore!" A woman of about the same age ordered. The two of them wore black suits with a red R printed just over the hearth. Against them, there were three rocket guards, all of them wearing the standard black and red uniforms they were all familiar with.

"Arbok! Poison sting that Jolteon!" one of the grunts ordered.

"Houndour! Bite that Flareon!" His companion agreed.

"Venusaur, vine whip that tangela out of the way!" the third one added.

It took Ash and his friends half a second to decide to intervene, and once they did, barely a few seconds more to help the two young members who apparently were attacking the three rocket grunts. Arcanine leaped over the heads of the two young Rockets, releasing a well-aimed stream of flame at the Venusaur. Seadra sent out a powerful jet of bubble toward the houndour, knocking it back and sending it reeling. Pikachu jumped over the head of them all, releasing a powerful blast of electricity that knocked down the three grunts and their pokemon.

The two rockets turned toward them. The girl had long, golden hair held back by a leather band, while the boy had dark hair, nearly as dark as his own, but longer, and tied in a ponytail. There was something definitely familiar about the looks of the young man...something that jumped out at him, but something that he couldn't identify, no matter how must he looked at the man.

Then, just as he was opening his mouth to say somethimg, Ash recognized what it was that had jumped out at him - the young man's eyes, which were the exact same aqua as Misty's. The young man, who was about to say something, looked at them again, and his mouth opened wide, but no sounds came out as his eyes widened as well. Turning toward his companion, he noticed Misty had the exact same face, and he finally realized that the young man had to be Misty's twin brother, whom she had mentioned a week or so before.

Finally, the two of them started running toward each others, throwing themselves in each other's arms. The young man - Damian, from what Misty had told him - was first to speak of the two of them. 

"I...I thought you were dead..." he told her. "There was that thing in the newspapers about you being dead..." he told her, his voice shaking.

"I'll explain later." She told him softly, a few tears in her eyes. "But what are YOU doing in Team Rocket?" she asked back. "And what about them saying you are the boss's son..." she trailed off. "So Lily and the others...they didn't lie when they said they were only our half-sisters..." she slowly realized.

"I'm afraid not." Damian replied sadly, and Ash watched the two of them, a bitter-sweet feeling settling inside him. Sweet because Misty had finally been re-united with her twin brother, bitter because of the price of that reunion in what she had learned. She sighed. 

"There's one more thing, though. Someone - I don't know who - took over Team Rocket and imprisoned our father. Elayne - she's my girlfriend - and I were about to go rescue him...care to tag along?" he asked her.

"I...I guess so..." Misty replied slowly. "Ash? Gary? Danea?" she asked them all. Ash nodded, knowing that he could not leave Misty behind, and that rescuing her father would probably give them an edge, as they would be able to obtain some of the information they wanted from him.

"If Ash and you are going, then I'm going." Gary stated suddenly. "I'm not about to let the two of you down." His face was as hard as a steel blade.

"Well, then, follow me!" Damian ordered and opened the door. They found themselves in a reserve filled with pokeballs, and they rushed, following Damian, though Ash wished that they would have the time to open them to see if Squirtle, Bulbasaur and the others were there.

"There's something wrong here!" Gary shouted, a second before a shelf holding pokeballs collapsed, sending a bunch of pokeballs rolling their ways. Pokeballs that seemed everything like normal pokeballs as they surrounded them...

...Except that they had eyes. 

"Damn! Those are Voltorbs!" Elayne swore as the "pokeballs" surrounded them. Not knowing what to do, Ash picked one of the pokeball in a nearby shelves and threw it to the floor. A pokemon appeared - an Abra. Watching the voltorb and the humans that had freed him in turn, he suddenly glowed blue...

And as the volotrbs exploded, Ash and his friends watched them doing so from a safe distance, with Abra looking at Ash curiously. Ash smiled at the little pokemon and patted her on the head. "Thank you Abra." He said softly, watching as the little psychic creature took a hold of his leg, apparently not intending to let go. 

"Looks like you got yourself a new pokemon." Misty smiled at him.

"Yeah, I'd say so..." he agreed, picking up the Abra gently. Without his having to do a thing, the little creature psychically reached for the pokeball that had held her and recalled herself. Ash caught the pokeball before it could fall to the ground, and added it to the others at his belt. "Welcome in the team Abra." He smiled.

"I think we should get out...." Damian said. "The explosion probably alerted other members about us being here. "Follow me!" 

The six of them raced toward the back of the storage room, finding a second door partially concealed behind a rack of empty pokeballs. Damian pushed the door open, revealing a stairway that lead down. He led them downstairs, where they found themselves in a damp, smelly area that looked very much like a prison. He rapidly looked around, spotting the only cell that had a closed door. There were no keys around that Ash could see, and Damian had no pokemon strong enough to destroy the door that they had seen.

"Let me handle it." Danea said, sending a powerful blast of psychic energy at the door. The ball of light collided with the steel plate that blocked their way, vanishing slowly as the door bended and twisted, before finally crashing to the door, its hinges destroyed by the powerful attack. A man stepped out of the cell, and as he did, Ash heard a strange noise, and turned to see only a shimmer of air were Danea had been.

"Now why did she teleport away?" Misty asked in surprise.

"Who?" The man, apparently the boss of Team Rocket, asked. 

"A psychic who was helping us...Danea." Misty explained to her father, though he didn't know yet he was her father.

"Danea...Ketchum?" He asked in shock. "I...she had her reasons to go away...she had many reasons to go away." He said, and an ancient wound seemed to be in his eyes. Then, he shook his head clear of all thought of the woman who had just vanished. "Damian, Elayne, I'm glad to see you again..." he told his son. "Who are they?" he asked Damian, looking curiously at Ash, Misty and Gary.

"People we met when we were trying to find you." Damian explained shortly. "I don't know the two boys, but the girls...look at her." He did not need to say more. The boss of Team Rocket took one long look at Misty, and his eyes widened. "So she's the twin sister you talked so much about." He said, looking at her. "I wonder what's my daughter doing raiding the rocket headquarters..." he added, an amused smiles on his lips.

"Revenge for when your minions killed one of my friend." She told him, her voice not quite frosty but not quite warm either.

"Killed? But..." he asked in shock. "I never ordered anyone killed...in fact, I ordered the Team to avoid killing..." he said, apparently shaken by the revelation.

"That's true...but then, the two who stole your place said they had been giving false orders, passing themselves off as you for quite a while, didn't they?" Damian mused.

"Yeah, might be that. Let's just find them and take them out." Giovanni muttered darkly.

_______________________________

Brock could not help but think that things were all too similar to their raid on the lumber mill as they raced through the hallways of the Rocket base, hoping not to run in anyone. Suddenly, as they rounded a corner, a figure appeared from the other side, crashing in him and sending the two of them tumbling down. As he first opened his eyes after falling, he thought that the red in front of his eyes was blood, then as the looked more carefully, he realized they were hair. Long, red hair.

"Get off me!" Jessie screamed, and he did so quickly, knowing exactly what kind of punishment to expect form the fierce red-hair if he did not obey. He rolled off her, and stood up as she stood up as well.

"Hey Jessie! That's one of the twerps!" James said suddenly. He was a bit further back, and had not run in any of them. Jessie looked at Brock, suddenly realizing who it was she had run in.

"So you didn't like to Ash and Misty when you talked about meeting them here..." Brock said.

"And they really wanted to raid the headquarters..." Jessie said, probably just as astonished as Brock himself was.

"We were going to the main archive area, to pick up all the incriminating stuff needed to send most of the Team for a long trip to jail." James told him. "You can come along." He added.

"James! You could've asked me before offering them to come..." Jessie told him, glaring. James winced and recoiled. "But you guys are still invited to come along." She added, looking darkly at Brock as she did so.

They started racing again, soon reaching a closed door, and stopping there. There was nothing to separate that door from any of the other they had encountered so far, but the two Rockets seemed sure it was the right place, but seemed reluctant to open the door as well.

"There's someone inside..." James told them. Before he could say anything more, a group arrived from each side of the hallway. The group coming from the left included Ash, Misty and Gary as well as three others Brock didn't recognize - though Jessie and James obviously recognized them all - and the other groups was made of two rocket members as well as Sabrina, Todd and Richie.

"Jessie! James! Wait!" One of the rocket from the group with Sabrina said. "They're in there...the two who stole the boss place, I mean!" 

____________________________

"They're in there?" the rocket boss looked hard at the door, as if he could make a hole through it and destroy whoever was inside with his eyes alone.

"Yes boss." The woman who had been with Sabrina nodded as Ash watched the door intently. The end of their raid was in sight, all that they had to do was to get past the door and take out the two as well as steal the files that would allow them to destroy Team Rocket.

"All right, let's attack. Ready?" he asked them.

"Ready." They all nodded. James carefully opened the door, and let the other rush in the room, ready to send in their pokemon. There were two rocket members in the room, both of which wore hooded cloaks hiding their faces. They turned to face the entering group.

"So...Giovanni wants his throne back?" one of them asked, looking at them with a thin smile. "You should have taken more people with you. We can have the rest of the team here in seconds...and they'll believe us..." One of them said in a whiny male voice that was painful to hear.

"You!" James said as he recognized the voice of the attacker. 

"You have no idea what you're doing...you don't know what the Team is really about." Giovanni told the two of them.

"The team that we lead is about profit. Now, you guys are going to go down." A more female voice added malevolently. "Arcanine, Hypno, Machamp, Vileplume, Murkrow, Arbok! You go!" she said, releasing her pokemon as she silently watched the group of them from under her hood.

"Primeape, Houndoom, Fearow, Sneasel, Gengar, Raticate, attack!" the man added.

The twelve pokemon materialized in the middle of the large room, for now alone and with the advantage. But soon their advantage was lost.

"Tangela! Ivysaur! Exeggutor! You go!" Elayne yelled, releasing her grass pokemon.

"Vaporeon! Jolgeon! Flareon! Umbreon! Espeon!" Damian shouted. "I choose all of you!" 

"Charizard! Pidgeot! Pikachu! Abra! Houndour! All of you attack!" Ash yelled, then stopped, recalling the still-young Houndour, knowing that the pokemon was still too weak to fight.

"Misty calls Starmie, Seadra and Lapras!" Misty shouted in her unmistakable style.

"Arcanine! Nidoking! Nidoqueen! Eevee! Get them!" Gary shouted, sending out his four best pokemon.

"Steelix! Zubat! Ninetales! Geodude! Show them!" Brock shouted.

"Bellossom, Dragonair, Vaporeon, Espeon! I need you guys!" Suzie added.

"Dragonite, time for you to come out!" Todd ordered.

"Jessie, James, Ralph, Felicity! Cover the hall! Don't let anyone in!" Giovanni ordered and watched as the four rocket stepped out. Sabrina soon stepped out to help them, as did Tanya and Richie.

The battle that broke out at that point was pure chaos. Ash's pokemon got in the first strike as Charizard and Pidgeot attacked from both side, combining their wing attack and flamethrower to take out the Vileplume, but the Stun Spore that the creature released before being taken down took Charizard out of the fight. The Hypno's eyes glowed as it released beam of psychic energy toward their pokemon, only to have them bounces off harmlessly off Umbreon's skin. The two Espeon and Abra joined in a circle, combining their psychic powers in a dreadful beam of psychic energy that send the Arbok flying out of the way. The Houndoom tried to use it's sunny day attack, but before it could even do that, Arcanine and Ninetales were attacking him from both sides, Ninetales firing rays of darkness and Arcanine taking advantage of its great speed to outflank the beast and bit it repeatedly.

The Rocket Arcanine tried to attack Elayne's grass pokemon, but was met with the combimed water guns of Seadra, and Starmie, reinforced half a second later by the jet of bubbles from the two Vaporeon. The great dog yelled in pain before falling to the side, defeated. Lapras fired a few ice beam, and the Fearow found himself falling to the ground, his wings frozen. He crashed down and fainted. The Hypno continued his attempt at attacking, but Umbreon charged, easily taking it out by biting it in the back after using her faint attack to vanish out in the shadows along the walls.

Meanwhile, the Houndoom had managed, despite being extremely confused, to take out Ninetales, only to fall at last to Arcanine's flanking attack. Suddenly, Geodude started to glow, and they all dove for cover, but the pokemon, who were closer to the rock type, were unable to reach it in time as the rock type exploded, causing nearly all the pokemon to faint. Only Lapras, who had been the farthest from the blast, and Abra, who had teleported to safety in time, were still standing. They recalled their pokemon, watching the two hooded rockets, now revealed as Butch and Cassidy, who had fainted along with their pokemon. 

With Giovanni guidance, it was an easy thing to gather the needed files and with Abra to teleport them, they were back to Pallet in a moment, ready to remove the names they didn't want compromised from the list, and to hand it to the police.

_____________________________

The next morning, they all gathered in the middle of Pallet town to bring the documents to the police. Lured outside by having such a large crowd out in the morning in the usually quite town, citizens were at their windows or in the streets wondering what it was. A few of the grumpier ones yelled at them about making so much noise so early in the week end, but most of them just watched, wondering what was happening.

And so it was that when Butch and Cassidy calmly appeared, guns drawn and aimed at them, the scream that erupted in the town was nearly deafening, as it came from a thousand mouths, including Ash's. The two rocket agents calmly looked at them.

"Give us those papers back..." Butch voice was hard.

"Or else..." Cassidy added.

"Forget it." Gary answered, drawing his sword.

The two of them started firing, but strangely enough, the bullets seemed never to reach them...and Ash suddenly saw why. Gary, his eyes glowing, had become a blur of movement as he moved his blade with deadly efficiency, preventing all the bullets from reaching them, moving closer to the two rocket as the kept defeating them.

Butch dove to the ground, firing a single shot toward Ash, but Misty was there in time to push him down, out of the way of the bullet. He looked at her thankfully, and barely heard the second scream from the crowd, a scream of pain that was loss in the roars of the two guns. As Butch landed, he was caught in the chest by a psychic blast from Tanya, and Gary's sword easily disarmed Cassidy.

Ash took a deep breath has the two rockets were left defenseless thanks to Gary and Tanya intervention. It was over...or was it? Dimly, he remembered the one shot that Gary had not blocked and that had gotten through to strike someone in the crowd. He walked toward one of the larger gathering of crowd that was forming, a gathering that had started to form, from what he had seen, after the two Rockets had been neutralized.

He walked toward the gathering, wondering who it was who had been hurt. Misty joined him, walking side by side with him. They pushed aside the various onlookers, trying to reach the middle of the gathering, and finally did so, finding out who it was who had been shot...

His mother.

The Professor Oak, who was kneeling besides her, turned his head toward him and shook it sadly. Ash felt like his entire world had just collapsed as he realized what he meant, as he saw the bright red blood of his mother staining the street. He felt Misty wrapping her arms tightly around him for comfort, but somehow, there seemed to be no comfort. Not from the terrible loneliness of having lost his mother.

His tears mingled down with the blood of his mother in the street as a strange numbness filled him.


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue : An Empty Victory

With the files safely in the hand of the police, Team Rocket was slaughtered, quite literally. The last, dramatic events in the streets of Pallet Town created a massive outcry through Kanto, and the trials, despite the best efforts of the defendants, were quick and predictable. Butch and Cassidy were sentenced to life-long imprisonment, while many of the lesser members where condemned to a long time in prison, from one to as much as twenty years. A few of them were not found, and of course, those that Giovanni trusted were not even on the list in the first place, but with the blow that was dealt, Team Rocket would not come back, not without Giovanni's leadership.

The funeral of Ash's mother had been delayed a few weeks because all those who would have to be there were quite involved in the trials, but when it took place, they were all there. All of Ash's friend were, of course, and even Erica and Misty's sisters had found a way to come, as well as the entire Oak family - minus May, of course, because no one knew where she was. Danea had returned to Pallet shortly after the raid, and had been taking care of Ash for the last few weeks, saying it was what Ash's father wanted, seeing as outside him, who didn't want to reveal who he was yet, she was Ash's closest relative. Once the funeral were over, though, Danea being in charge of him wouldn't mean much, as he was determined to go back on the road, and this time become a pokemon master. His life now could be summed up to two things - Misty, and becoming a pokemon master. The girl he loved, and the one thing he had wanted since childhood. 

As the funeral took place, Ash just watched, not trusting himself to speak, even though the priests and his friends had all said that he should do so. Although the similarities with Misty's funeral barely a few week earlier, this time there was a difference that meant everything. This time, there would be no unexpected return...not the slightest chances that his mother would come back. This time, he could not even hope that it was all a nightmare and that his mother was really alive somewhere. Misty arm was on his shoulders, and she was trying, without much success, to comfort him. More friends had come, besides the Oak family and his own personal friends. Damian was there, in the back of the room, along with Elayne and his father, who was very carefully not looking at Danea - there had been an intense pain in his eyes the one time he had been forced to talk with her, a pain that had been mirrored in Danea's eyes.

Danea herself was in the back of the room, along with Tanya and a man in cloak and hood whose shoulders were slumped and heads bowed in grief. Danea seemed to be trying to comfort him, but not having anymore success than Misty was having with him. With an absolute certainty, Ash knew the man was his father, thought he simply was not up to taking care of that matter right now. He had just lot too much.

Their oath was fulfilled, true. Team Rocket was broken completely, true again, though he was sure it could rise back easily if Giovanni wanted it to. But the cost had been so high as to remove all the taste of victory from his mouth, to make it seems like a complete, utter and total defeat.

Then, he broke down and wept, hot, wet tears running down his cheeks and falling on the floor of the church and barely a moment later Misty was weeping too, and he could only assume she was weeping because of how close his mother and her had been.

________________________________

They were all gathered in Ash's home, even Giovanni and Danea, though they were careful to sit as far from each others as they could, and never to look at each other, as if there was something between them that wounded both of them whenever they thought about the other. 

"What was it you mentioned about them knowing nothing about the true goal of Team Rocket?" Misty asked her father quite suddenly. "You said something about that when we raided their library..." she pointed out.

"Oh...well...I guess I can tell you..." he answered slowly. "You see, about a thousand year or so ago, there was a...conflict...between the Gods of Day and Night." He told her. "It happens about once every thousand years, and whoever win get to control things his - or her - way for the next thousand years." He explained, and Ash looked at him with an unbelieving frown. "Anyway, after the fight, there was a seer who predicted that there would be another conflict like that in about a thousand years. My ancestor found out about that and formed Team Rocket to work toward gathering all the conditions so that the fight could take place as it should. Only thing is, not all of his heirs have been as interested in keeping things as they should as he was. There were quite a few who wanted money, and turned Team rocket in a crime machine. I tried to turn it back to its original purpose as much as I could, but..."

"That was a good story...now what about telling us the truth?" said Misty with an edge in her voice.

"It was the truth." Danea answered, her voice hard. "Trust me, it is the truth."

"I know." Sabrina nodded. Ash whirled to face the two of them.

"And just how do you know that?" he asked them suspiciously.

"Because it's part of the stuff we learned with the league." Sabrina confirmed. "There's a lot more to tell about it, but I don't think we need to hear all that now..." she explained. Then, apparently willing to change the topic, she asked them. "What are you all planning to do?"

They were all silent for a moment, of course, it was Ash that broke the silence.

"I think I'll be going back to Johto...the next Indigo League tournament is a bit too close for me to feel ready for it, and the Orange League tournament is only once every two years and it just ended..."

"And I'll be going there too, but on a picture-taking job for professor Oak." Todd added. "Which means, not with you Ash." Ash grinned at his friend as he made the comment.

"I'll be going to Johto with Ash." Misty smiled. "And I don't think anyone will be surprised by that." She smiled. "Did you really expect me to stay away from him?" there was an amused twinkle in her eyes as she moved closer to Ash to hug him tightly.

"Do you want to collect your badges alone Ash?" Gary asked, almost shyly. "I don't want to travel alone, and I was planning to collect Jotho badges..." he explained.

"Of course you can come Gary." Ash smiled at his friend.

"Thank you." Gary smiled back.

"I'll be going back to my gym, of course." Sabrina told them without a hint of a smile. Lily, Violet, Daisy and Erika nodded in approval, as they would be doing the same. Of course, no one was surprised by that, as it had been obvious from the start they wanted to keep their gym leader jobs.

Suzie spoke next. "I'll be going back to Celadon...I want to get a breeding center up and running there..." she told them. Brock looked at her, and she nodded. "Brock offered to help me there, and I accepted." She smiled.

"I don't know what I'll be doing." Damian admitted. "Maybe I could tag along with you?" He asked Ash, Misty and Gary. "I feel like traveling, and I'd rather spend time with my sister..." he explained them, looking at them. They had told him about just what they had against Team Rocket, and apparently he seemed to think it extended to him.

"Why not?" Gary asked. "It's not like you did anything to us...heck, you helped us." He admitted. Ash smiled.

"I guess you can come..." Ash added, not too sure about the whole deal even if he found the young man to be the rather likeable kind.

"Well, of course you can come!" Misty almost shouted. "I'll be glad to have you along." She smiled at her twin brother.

"I hope I'm welcome too in your group?" Elayne asked them.

"Of course!" Misty smiled, and Ash did so too. 

"Definitely." He added. "We aren't about to split the two of you apart." He told her, knowing that she wouldn't want to be apart from Damian anymore that he would want to be away from Misty.

And so, the next day, they left Pallet town back toward the high mountains that rose in the west, the same Silver Range that they had crossed what seemed eons ago on another quest. As the sun rose in the east, bathing the scene in a strange light, Giovanni watched them go, another figure in a long cloak by his side, a friend who had thought him lost...and a friend who had just lost a lot..

"You did not tell him?" He asked his friend. 

"Who? What?" Lance turned toward him, looking at him questioningly - and a bit tiredly as well. 

"Ash. You have not told him yet?" Giovanni explained, knowing the answer already, but asking the question all the same.

"No...he isn't ready for it." Lance answered softly. "I want him to really get what he is after before I tell him...Otherwise..." the slightly younger man left it hanging.

"I know..." Giovanni answered. "But you'll have to tell him one day or another." He pointed out. "And...there's the matter of the twilight, too." He said, hoping his friend would get the reference.

"I know." Lance nodded. "But there is still time...the Child has yet to rise, and the Seeker to die." 

Giovanni sighed, a deep, sad sigh. "Yeah...that have yet to happen."

"The treacherous blood bring down the eternal watchers, darkness opening the path to the darkness that foreshadow the darkness, the gates of oblivion are cracking."

-Agatha, Seeress of Indigo, The Book of Ruins, as spoken in the city of Indigo in the 2000th year after the awakening.


End file.
